Syria talks held in Riyadh with Western and regional participation via Reuters
Written by Pesha Magid
RIYADH (Reuters) – Foreign ministers and senior officials from the West and the Middle East met Syria’s new foreign minister in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Sunday for the first regional meeting on Syria since President Bashar al-Assad was ousted last month.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Riyadh on Sunday morning ahead of a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani.
British foreign minister David Lammy was also expected to join the talks, according to a statement issued by the UK Foreign Office.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey were all in Riyadh for Sunday’s meeting along with delegates from the European Union and the United States. Other senior Arab and Western officials are expected to attend.
A lightning rebel attack toppled Assad on 8 December and the Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the movement, installed a coalition government that appointed Shibani as foreign minister.
“The talks in Riyadh will be led by the Arabs and focus on the next steps the international community can take to support the Syrian interim authorities, including ways to hold the Assad regime accountable for the war crimes they have committed against the Syrian people,” the British said in a statement.
The meeting is the first to include the new Syrian rulers and senior Western officials and will be chaired by Saudi Arabia.
This follows a meeting of senior US officials, United The state (TADAWUL :), France, Germany and the European Union held Syria in Rome on Thursday and a historic meeting Jordan hosted in December where regional players expressed concern about the new Islamic rulers of Syria and what they need to do to gain international recognition.
Sunday’s summit comes as Syria’s new administration calls for an end to Western sanctions to help international aid flow to Damascus.
Germany, Italy and France in recent days have forced the EU sanctions on Syria to be relaxed, but the final decision can come from the rest of the bloc.
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on trade with Syrian government agencies six months after the end of Assad’s rule to try to slow the flow of humanitarian aid.
