Baerbock warns – Assad now also invited to the world climate conference

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The years of isolation of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad is increasingly coming to an end – at least in the Arab world. After the country’s rejoining of the Arab League from the civil war, the president has now received an invitation to the next UN global climate conference. This takes place in November in Dubai.

The President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Said Al Nahjan, has invited Assad, the Syrian state agency Sana reported on Monday. The conference is likely to be Assad’s first major gathering since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, with many Western heads of state and government also attending.

Where conversations with Assad are currently taboo
The Emirates have been calling for rapprochement with Assad for some time. Following Syria’s recent readmission to the Arab League, Assad is also expected to attend the organization’s summit in Saudi Arabia on Friday. For the West, talks with Assad are taboo. Twelve years ago, the EU imposed extensive sanctions. These were in response to the Assad government’s violent repression of the civilian population.

Brussels has ruled out a diplomatic approach to the Syrian government for the time being. A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell recently said that the EU’s position on Syria has not changed and that current sanctions remain in place. A prerequisite for normalization of relations is a political change in the country.

Baerbock: Don’t Reward Assad for Human Rights Violations
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday warned of an “unconditional normalization” with the ruler. “Any step towards Assad must be made dependent on concrete concessions,” the Green politician said after a meeting with her Saudi Arabian colleague Faizal bin Farhan. The German minister is currently in Saudi Arabia for talks. The next meeting of the Arab League will take place in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Friday. Assad is also expected there.

Germany and partners in the region are hoping for a signal from Friday’s summit meeting that normalization with Assad will be subject to specific conditions. Baerbock said: “In Syria, the political process to resolve the conflict is still a long way off. For more than a decade there has been nothing but bloodshed, incredible human suffering that is hardly reported anymore.” Assad should not be “rewarded for the most serious human rights violations on a daily basis”.

Source: Krone

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