dpa
Brussels
The European Union needs to engage with the new leadership of Syria to keep them accountable during the transition of power following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in Brussels on Thursday.
The Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is largely responsible for ousting long-time ruler al-Assad, has said it wants to represent all of Syria. The EU should “hold them to that” while providing as much humanitarian aid as possible, De Croo said.
EU leaders meet in Brussels for the first time since al-Assad was toppled, with the bloc facing decisions about how to deal with HTS, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and subject to EU sanctions.
The EU’s far-reaching economic sanctions on Syria could be reconsidered if the country’s new leadership makes progress towards an inclusive and democratic power transition, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said ahead of the meeting.
The HTS-led armed groups, however, control only a portion of Syrian territory, with large swathes of the country controlled by Kurdish forces as well as other factions that fought against the ousted al-Assad regime.
De Croo stressed the bloc should work to prevent Syria from developing into a “place where everyone is fighting out their conflicts on someone else’s ground.” HTS has taken the lead in forming a transitional government in Damascus.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said it was important the EU judges the HTS group “by what they do and not what they say,” but noted that it was too early in the transition to really make a judgement.
EU leaders, while cautious about Syria’s future under HTS, shared their approval of the fall of the al-Assad regime.
“It’s good that Assad has fallen. He attacked, killed and tortured an incredible number of his own citizens,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.
“And now there is an opportunity for a safe life for the very different population groups, the very different religious communities,” Scholz said.
EU leaders hope that Syria under its new leadership could once again be labelled as a safe country, which would mean EU countries could refuse Syrians asylum and begin deportations.
Berlin and other European governments have already suspended the processing of pending and new asylum applications by Syrians. Over 1 million Syrians have been granted international protection in the EU, with several hundred thousand living in Germany alone.
Other topics on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting were the latest developments in the Middle East conflict as well as discussions about the EU’s strategic position and relations with the rest of the world.
