Germany reopens Syria mission as foreign minister set to visit Damascus

Germany has officially reopened its embassy in Syria, a foreign ministry source says, with a small diplomatic team working in Damascus.

The move comes as outgoing German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is set to visit Damascus and meet with the country’s new rulers.

Germany’s mission closed in 2012 amid the Syrian civil war. Consular affairs and visas will continue to be handled from Beirut given the precarious security situation, the source adds.

Before leaving for Syria, Baerbock spoke out against internecine violence that broke out there in recent weeks, saying the new leadership must do more to control “groups in its own ranks.”

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, security forces and allied groups killed at least 1,500 civilians, most of them Alawites, the same minority to which former president Bashar al-Assad belongs.

Baerbock said she would use her trip to tell Syria’s government that a “fresh start” between Europe and Germany on one side and Syria on the other was conditional on all Syrians enjoying freedom and security regardless of faith, gender or ethnicity.