Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa did not shake the hand of German Minister Annalena Baerbock, left, unlike that of his male counterpart, Frenchman Jean-Noel Barrot, right. Friday in Damascus.
Photo: KEYSTONE/AP
The French Foreign Minister admitted on Sunday that he would have ‘preferred’ that the new Syrian leader agreed to shake hands with his German counterpart on Friday, while believing that this was not the ‘purpose’ of the visit.
Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock met on Friday, under European mandate, the new leader of the country, the Islamist Ahmad al-Chareh. And the images of the latter refraining from shaking hands with the head of German diplomacy made the rounds on social networks.
‘Would I have preferred Ahmed al-Chareh to shake hands with my German colleague? The answer is yes. Was that the purpose of this trip? The answer is no,’ Mr. Barrot declared on private radio RTL.
‘There are tens of thousands of Daesh terrorist fighters in Syria today (Islamic State group in Arabic, editor’s note) who are detained in prisons in the north-east of the country,’ he argued.
First meeting
Following the action of the Bashar Al-Assad regime, there are chemical weapons everywhere in Syria which were designed by this regime, (…) turned by this regime against its people, which are disseminated and which could fall into the wrong hands,’ he added.
‘If I don’t go to Syria, who will protect the French against these threats, against their security?’
The first steps of the leader of the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who led the coalition that seized Damascus, are being closely scrutinized.
The visit to Damascus by the two ministers was the first at this level between officials of the great Western powers and the one who took the reins of the country on December 8, after the flight of President Assad.
/ATS
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