BERLIN, January 4. /TASS/. Europe is ready to offer assistance to Syria but will not finance the establishment of Islamist structures there, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.
"Europe will provide support, but Europe will not sponsor new Islamist structures," the Welt television channel quoted her as saying during a visit to Damascus. "It means that the issues of the country’s recovery, security, the observance of the principles of a law-ruled state and involving all groups of the population are closely interrelated."
Baerbock and her French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, paid an unannounced visit to Syria. They men with Syria’s new leader leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. Welcoming his guests, the latter refrained from shaking hands with the top German diplomat because of her gender, the German mass media noted.
Baerbock and Barrot were the first European foreign ministers to visit Syria following the ouster of former President Bashar Assad. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday that Berlin is maintaining intensive contacts with Syria’s new authorities and is in talks with other opposition groups.
Armed opposition units in Syria launched a large-scale offensive on government troops in the Aleppo and Idlib governorates in late November. On December 8, they entered Damascus, while President Bashar Assad stepped down and fled the country. On December 10, Mohammed al-Bashir, who had led the so-called Syrian Salvation Government in the Idlib governorate, announced his appointment as head of Syria’s interim government, saying that the transitional period will last until March 1, 2025.