Spain joins the growing number of Western countries in seeking contacts with the Syrian interim government, after the overthrow of autocrat Bashar al-Assad. The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, announced this Monday in Brussels that he will appoint a special envoy for Syria to initiate “preliminary contacts” with the transitional Executive led by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), designated as a terrorist organization by the UN and the United States. The US has already initiated “direct contacts” with HTS. Also the United Kingdom and Italy. France will send a delegation to Syria next Tuesday, as reported this Sunday by Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. Meanwhile, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy and Security, Kaja Kallas, this Monday ordered the EU diplomat in charge of Syria to travel to Damascus to begin weaving networks to initiate working contacts.
“[El nuevo enviado] is going to reinforce our embassy in Damascus; The idea is that Spain joins the European countries that are having contacts with the new authorities,” said Albares upon his arrival at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, for a meeting in which the ministers of the 27 member states will debate what level and how to launch contacts with the Syrian interim government, a group that has been notably moderating its postulates, although it comes from the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, an organization with which it broke in 2013.
“These new contacts, and I will also request this from the EU, clearly have to be very preliminary and above all to convey clear red lines: the need for the future of Syria to be peaceful. What is a military movement has to evolve into a peaceful movement, it has to be absolutely, necessarily inclusive with ethnic and religious minorities and we are also going to help and collaborate so that Syria maintains its territorial integrity and that there are no areas of the country in the hands of of armed groups. “Syria cannot have external military interference,” added Albares. The minister also explained that the Spanish chargé d’affaires – the highest-ranking diplomat there – stationed in Damascus will return this week to the Arab country from Lebanon, where he was for security reasons, after accompanying a group of Spaniards.
The EU remains “cautious” about the new authorities of the Arab country. “Syria is going through a very optimistic and positive moment, but with a very uncertain future and we have to make sure that it is going in the right direction,” said Kallas upon her arrival at her first Foreign Affairs Council as head of European diplomacy. He then explained that now it is a matter of deciding with his European counterparts at what level these contacts will be maintained with the Syrian interim government and what further steps need to be followed. “Not only words matter, but also actions, and the coming months will show us if things are going in the right direction,” Kallas remarked. The Estonian was in Jordan over the weekend, at a high-level meeting to talk about Syria with representatives from the region and the United States. In addition, the head of the community Executive, Ursula von der Leyen, will travel to Türkiye this Tuesday to discuss the Arab country with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Syrian refugees
One of the great debates that is being fueled now is the return of Syrian refugees. The foreign ministers will discuss the issue this Monday – also Von der Leyen with Erdogan – after more and more European countries, such as Germany and France, have suspended asylum applications from citizens of the Arab country. Spain, Albares has stressed, with a considerably smaller number of Syrian petitioners, “has not seen the need to do so.” “We are going to be very scrupulous that the return of refugees to Syria – which is good news, let us remember that refugees are people who live for reasons beyond their control outside their homes – is a safe return, which respects human rights.” of the refugees and is done according to the criteria established by UNHCR, the UN agency for refugees,” said Albares.
The pressure for the return of Syrian asylees is not new. A few months ago, a group of countries, led by Italy, one of the hard-line states on immigration matters led by its prime minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, proposed probing the authorities of autocrat El Assad and reopening diplomatic channels. to eventually declare some areas of the country safe and establish contacts to be able to send refugee applicants who have been denied that right. Rome even appointed a head of mission for Damascus, who never presented his credentials to Assad.
Now, the Meloni Government has proposed to the Member States that the sanctions that the EU maintains on Syria be progressively and “conditionally” withdrawn. “The new leadership [sirio] “must commit to adopting a non-aggressive stance towards Syria’s neighbors and to ensure that Syrian territory is not used to carry out acts of terrorism or violent extremism,” Italy says in a decalogue to guide contacts with the interim government, sent to rest of member states for discussion and to which Morning Express has had access. “It is necessary to create the preconditions for a safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable return of refugees to Syria,” the document highlights.
