Written by Bisha Majid
RIYADH (Reuters) – Foreign ministers and senior diplomats from Western and Middle Eastern countries will meet with Syria's new foreign minister in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday in the first such regional meeting on Syria since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad last month.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrived in Riyadh on Sunday morning ahead of her meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is also expected to join the talks, according to a statement from the British Foreign Office.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey were all in Riyadh for Sunday's meeting, as well as envoys from the European Union and the United States. It is expected that other senior Arab and Western officials will attend.
A lightning opposition attack toppled Assad on December 8, and the Islamist rebels Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which led the advance, formed a caretaker government and appointed al-Shaibani as foreign minister.
He added, “The discussions in Riyadh will be Arab-led and focus on the next steps that the international community can take to support the Syrian interim authorities, including mechanisms for holding the Assad regime accountable for the war crimes it committed against the Syrian people.” The statement said.
The meeting is the first to include Syria's new rulers and senior Western officials and will be led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
This comes after a meeting of senior diplomats from the United States and the United States Kingdom France, Germany and the European Union held a meeting on Syria in Rome on Thursday and a historic meeting hosted by Jordan in December when regional players expressed concerns about the new Islamist rulers in Syria and what they need to do to gain international recognition.
Sunday's conference comes as the new Syrian administration urges the West to lift sanctions to help international funding flow to Damascus.
Germany, Italy and France have pushed in recent days for an easing of EU sanctions on Syria, but the final decision can only come from the entire bloc.
On Monday, the United States issued an exemption from sanctions on transactions with Syria's ruling institutions for a period of six months after the end of Assad's rule in an attempt to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid.
