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By Pesha Majid
RIYADH (Reuters) – Foreign ministers and top diplomats from Western and Middle Eastern countries will meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday for the first continental summit on Syria since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, with a new Syrian foreign minister.
German Foreign Minister Annale Berbock arrived in Riyadh on Sunday morning for talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Asad Hassan Alshibani.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is also expected to join the discussion, the British Foreign Office announced in a statement.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey attended Sunday’s meeting in Riyadh, along with delegations from the European Union and the United States. Other high-ranking Arab and Western officials are expected to attend.
A lightning rebel offensive ousted Assad on December 8, and the Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who led the advance, formed an interim government that appointed Shibani as foreign minister.
“The Arab-led talks in Riyadh will focus on the next steps the international community can take to support the interim Syrian authorities, including how to hold the Assad regime accountable for war crimes against the Syrian people,” he said in a statement.
The meeting is the first to include both Syria’s new rulers and senior Western officials, and will be chaired by Saudi Arabia.
It follows the meeting with the top diplomats of the US, United. Government (Tadawul:) France, Germany and the European Union on Syria held a dramatic meeting in Rome on Thursday and Jordan hosted in December regional players expressed concern over Syria’s new Islamic regime and what they need to do to gain international recognition.
Sunday’s conference comes as the new Syrian administration urges the lifting of Western sanctions to allow international funding to go to Damascus.
Germany, Italy and France have been pushing for the lifting of EU sanctions on Syria in recent days, but a final decision can only come from the entire bloc.
The United States on Monday released sanctions relief on transactions with government institutions in Syria for six months after the end of the Assad regime to ease the flow of humanitarian aid.
