Upheaval in Syria: HTS in Syria is seeking international support

The European Union and the United Nations are establishing contacts with the new rulers in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad. The EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas is sending top German diplomat Michael Ohnmacht to Damascus. The UN special envoy Geir Pedersen already spoke there with the leader of the Islamist group HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa.

The HTS militia, which overthrew Syria’s Assad in a lightning offensive a week ago, continued to present itself as moderate and accessible. She explained that al-Sharaa had spoken to Pedersen about the “unity of the Syrian territories” as well as the reconstruction and political transition in the country. In photos of the meeting, al-Sharaa can be seen wearing a shirt and jacket. Previously he had usually appeared in a green military uniform or, years ago, with a jihadist turban.

EU: Avoid developments like those in Libya and Afghanistan

For the EU, the planned contacts are primarily about the question of how they contribute to stabilizing the country and how developments like those in Libya or Afghanistan can be prevented.

An important role is also played by the fact that many member states hope that Syrian refugees will then be able to voluntarily return to their homeland or otherwise be deported. There are hundreds of thousands of people who fled the Assad regime in Germany alone, and well over a million in all EU states combined.

So far, however, no one knows whether Syria will really find peace under the new rulers. EU chief diplomat Kallas recently acknowledged that there are legitimate concerns about the risks of sectarian violence, the resurgence of extremism and a government vacuum. In order to prevent this, the EU now wants to establish communication channels regarding HTS, even though it is still on the United Nations’ terror list and is therefore subject to EU sanctions.

Discussion about lifting sanctions on Syria

Diplomats in Brussels said on Monday that the sanctions were not preventing any talks. However, lifting punitive measures is only conceivable if really positive developments can be seen with the HTS. For example, no funds or other economic resources may currently be made available to the group. People are also affected by travel bans.

The assessments of the situation by Germany’s top diplomat, Ohnmacht, will therefore also be important in the coming weeks. He has been head of the EU-Syria delegation since September. Previously, he worked, among other things, as the German ambassador to Libya, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. According to his own statements, he also speaks Arabic and some Turkish.

According to HTS, Al-Sharaa and Pedersen spoke, among other things, about UN Security Council Resolution 2254 of 2015 on the civil war in Syria. It calls for a ceasefire, a new constitution and elections. “It is necessary to update the resolution to reflect the new reality,” HTS stated. In the resolution, the Al-Nusra Front, from which HTS emerged, is named as a “terrorist group” together with the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS).

According to the UN, Pedersen said that a necessary “comprehensive political transition” must take place based on the principles of Resolution 2254. The United Nations wanted to “provide all possible assistance to the Syrian people.”

Türkiye as the most important foreign actor

At the international level, HTS, which in recent years controlled the Syrian rebel stronghold of Idlib on the Turkish border, sometimes cooperated with the Turkish military and militias close to Turkey. Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin only visited Damascus on Thursday, and Turkey reopened its embassy there two days later. Turkey is seen as the winner of the upheaval and the most influential foreign actor.

Qatar was also previously said to have connections to HTS. The Gulf emirate reportedly supported and financed the Al-Nusra Front, something the government in Doha has denied. Contacts between Qatar and the HTS now appear to be just as quick in the country as with Turkey: On Sunday, a Qatari delegation met with representatives of the interim government of Mohammed al-Bashir, who previously led the HTS government in Idlib. According to information from Doha, the goal is, among other things, to reopen the Qatari embassy in Damascus.

Most recently, Italy as well as Egypt, Jordan and other countries in the Arab region resumed operations in their embassies. In 2022, there were consular representations for eight EU countries, including Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic. Since 2012, the Czech Republic has represented the USA in consular matters because its embassy was also closed.