“European conditions” for the new Syrian leaders

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that “Europe will support” Syria during the transition phase, but that it “will not finance new Islamic institutions.”
According to Reuters, Baerbock and his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, stressed the need for a peaceful and inclusive transition of power in Syria, during their first official visit to Damascus since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Baerbock said he had argued to Syrian officials, including at al-Charaa, that “women’s rights are a yardstick” for measuring human rights progress. She also insisted that there was no need to create an “Islamic government” and that the lifting of sanctions against Syria would depend on progress in the political process. She stressed the importance of involving all communities in the reconstruction process.
The German minister also insisted on the need to guarantee the security of the Kurds, who control vast territories in northeast Syria. In addition, she called on all neighboring countries to “respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria”, specifying that “the security of the Kurds is essential for a peaceful Syria”. She added that this required stopping the fighting in the north (between Kurdish factions and those supported by Turkey) and integrating Kurdish forces into the Syrian security structure.
For his part, Jean-Noël Barrot invited the new Syrian government to reach a “political solution” with the Kurds. During his meeting with representatives of Syrian civil society, he stressed the need to “find a political solution with France’s allies, namely the Kurds, in order to fully integrate them into the political process currently underway.”
The French minister also called for the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, declaring that “a sovereign and secure Syria leaves no room for the proliferation or use of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical weapons held by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. He confirmed that Paris would offer French and European “legal expertise” to support the drafting of a new constitution.
Syrian authorities have suspended implementation of the current constitution, while al-Sharaa previously said that drafting a new constitution could take “two or three years.”