(3 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria – 3 January 2025
1. Various of French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot attending civil society meeting
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Minister: ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"A few weeks ago a new hope rose, the hope for a Syria that is sovereign, stable, and peaceful. We owe this hope to the determination and mobilisation of Syrians that I would like to commend today. This hope is fragile and real, and it’s the reason why France will stand next to Syrians as it has for the past 13 years, since the start of the revolution, to make sure that this hope happens."
3. Various of Barrot at meeting
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Jean-Noel Barrot, French Foreign Minister:
"A sovereign and secure Syria leaves no room to Islamist terrorism. Terrorism has hit you hard, and terrorism has hit us hard, in our flesh."
5. Various of man addressing meeting, Barrot listening
STORYLINE:
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot met with representatives of Syrian civil society in Damascus on Friday during his to the country.
Barrot has travelled to Syria along with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in the first official visit to Syria by top diplomats from European Union countries since the fall of former President Bashar Assad.
As well as meeting civil society representatives Barrot has also visited the long-shuttered French Embassy in Damascus and met with religious leaders in the Christian neighbourhood of Bab Touma.
He and Baerbock are expected to meet with Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist former insurgent group that is now the de facto ruling party in Syria.
Since Assad’s ouster in a lightning offensive by opposition forces, Damascus has experienced a flurry of visits from Arab and Western countries that had cut off relations with Assad’s government during the country’s nearly 14-year civil war.
However, Western countries have so far not lifted sanctions placed on Syria under Assad or removed the designation of HTS as a terrorist group, although the United States lifted a $10 million bounty it had previously placed on al-Sharaa.
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