Germany says wants to help Syria become ‘functioning state’

BERLIN (AFP): Germany wants to help Syria return to being “a functioning state with full control over its territory”, its foreign minister said Friday ahead of a trip to Damascus.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will join her French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus on Friday for talks on behalf of the European Union with Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led opposition forces in ousting Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in early December.

Despite “skepticism” about Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces, “we must not miss the opportunity to support the Syrian people at this important crossroads”, Baerbock said as she travelled to join Barrot in Syria.

She said the visit was a “clear signal” to Damascus of the possibility for a new relationship between Syria and Germany, and Europe more broadly.

She also asked the new regime to avoid “acts of vengeance against groups within the population”, to avoid a long delay before elections, and to avert attempts to radicalize the judicial and education systems.

“This must be our common objective,” she added.

Syria’s new authorities have announced curriculum changes, including scrapping poetry relating to women and love and references to “Gods” in ancient history courses, and interpreting a Quranic verse about those who had angered God and strayed as referring to “Jews and Nasara,” a derogatory term for Christians.

The national anthem has also been removed from school textbooks and the nationalistic phrase “to sacrifice one’s life in defense of his homeland” has been replaced with “to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of Allah.”