By Pesha Magid
RIYADH (Reuters) – Foreign ministers and top diplomats from Western and Middle Eastern countries are meeting Syria’s new foreign minister in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday at the first such 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 the 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 plus envoys from the European Union and the United States. Other top Arab and Western officials are expected to attend.
A lightning rebel offensive overthrew Assad on Dec. 8 and Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the advance, set up a caretaker government that appointed Shibani as foreign minister.
“Discussions in Riyadh will be Arab-led and focus on the next steps the international community can take to support the interim Syrian authorities, including mechanisms to hold the Assad regime to account for the war crimes they perpetrated against the Syrian people,” the British statement said.
The meeting is the first to include both Syria’s new rulers and top Western officials and will be led by Saudi Arabia.
It follows a meeting top diplomats from the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany and the European Union held on Syria in Rome on Thursday and a landmark meeting Jordan hosted in December when regional players signalled concerns over Syria’s new Islamist rulers and what they need to do to get international recognition.
Sunday’s conference comes as Syria’s new administration urges a lift of sanctions by the West to help international funding flow to Damascus.
Germany, Italy and France have in recent days pushed for EU sanctions on Syria to be relaxed, but a final decision could only come from the entire bloc.
The United States on Monday issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months after the end of Assad’s rule to try to ease the flow of humanitarian assistance.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid in Riyadh and Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo; Additional reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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