The European Union has stepped up efforts to build ties with Syria’s new leaders and persuade them to reduce Russia’s influence over the war-ravaged country with a visit by the German and French foreign ministers to Damascus.
Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and her French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, held talks with Syria’s de-facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, on Friday. They’re the highest-ranking Western officials to go to Syria since al-Sharaa’s Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad last month.
Baerbock said in a statement before departing Berlin that the EU wants to help Syria achieve “an inclusive, peaceful transfer of power” as well as with reconstruction efforts, and acknowledged it will be “a rocky road.”