Brussels 16.12.2024 Today the top EU diplomats convene in Brussels to discuss a number of international issues, with the events in Syria in first ranks.

“…On Syria, on Saturday, I was in Jordan, meeting with the Arab nations, as well as Türkiye and the United States to discuss the principles of engagement with the new leadership of Syria and what is expected from them.

“I think that it is very important that the regional actors, as well as the international actors, see the picture in the same way and want this country to be stable, peaceful and [with an] all-comprising government in place. Therefore, I think it was important to agree on these principles.

“I have also tasked the European top diplomat in Syria to go to Damascus to make the contacts with the new government and people there. We will also discuss today in the Foreign Affairs Council how we engage with the new leadership of Syria, and on what level we engage with the new leadership. And of course, what [further] steps are we willing to take if we see that Syria goes to the right direction.

“Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future. We have to make sure that this goes in the right direction”.

The so-called “rebel leader” Abu Mohammed al Jolani, whose group was central to the lightning offensive that toppled decades of dictatorship in Syria, has spent a considerable amount of time as an al Qaeda fighter in Iraq

Regarded a terrorist by the US, which still has a $10m (£7.8m) bounty on his head, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) says he has renounced his past as a hardline jihadi extremist and now tries hard to make the international community believe he embraces pluralism and tolerance.