MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia reiterated Wednesday its stand on the Syrian president, saying that there is no place for Bashar Assad in the country’s future.
“We do not believe there is a future for Bashar in Syria,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir during a press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
“Assad is responsible for the killing of 300,000 Syrian citizens. He is also to blame for the involvement of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah in carrying out genocide crimes in Syria,” said the minister.
Al-Jubeir highlighted Riyadh-Moscow coordination regarding the Syrian crisis, confirming that the leaders of both countries are eager to enhance historical ties.
He said there are many obstacles that must be overcome via dialogue and mutual coordination. “I am convinced that there are many opportunities to achieve success,” Al-Jubeir added.
Lavrov said Russia and Saudi Arabia are part of the group of countries supporting Syria. He added that the Syrian crisis was a main point of discussion during his talks with Al-Jubeir.
Al-Jubeir also supported the idea of an international probe into a suspected chemical weapons attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun, but said the Kingdom still believes the Assad regime was behind the strike.
Meanwhile, hundreds of tearful mourners attended a mass funeral Wednesday for loved ones killed in a suicide bombing on a convoy of evacuees, in one of the Syrian war’s most gruesome attacks.
At least 150 people, including 72 children, were killed on April 15 in an explosion targeting evacuees from Foua and Kfraya, two Shiite-majority villages under siege in northwestern Syria.
Women, children and men — some of them in military uniform — began gathering at a mosque from the morning to take part in the funeral procession.
“There’s no worse feeling than this, than burying your sister without being able to see her,” said 19-year-old Abdelsalam Remman, his voice breaking.
He was carrying a poster of his 6-year-old sister Tuqa, who was killed in the attack after being evacuated with their mother, who was wounded.
“Our heart melted until we identified her” among those of the dead several days later, said Remman.
The suicide car bombing in Rashidin, west of Syria’s second city Aleppo, was one of the most devastating attacks of the six-year war that has killed at least 320,000.
It hit a convoy of evacuees from Foua and Kfraya, who had been bussed out of their besieged regime-held villages as part of an evacuation deal that also included two opposition-controlled towns surrounded by the regime.
The attacker appeared to lure children to his vehicle with bags of crisps, according to witnesses. Dozens of unidentified bodies remain at Aleppo’s government hospital, and many survivors said they had relatives who were still missing.
A pained expression on her face, Wafaa Homsi looked at the rows of coffins, one of which held her 13-year-old daughter Raghd.
“My daughter is being buried here. My husband and two of my sons are still missing. We’re waiting to hear something, anything, about them,” Homsi said.
— With input from AFP
No future for Assad in Syria, reiterates Saudi Arabia
No future for Assad in Syria, reiterates Saudi Arabia
Syria’s leader set to visit Berlin with deportations in focus
- Sharaa is scheduled to meet his counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president’s office said
BERLIN: Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa is expected in Berlin on Tuesday for talks, as German officials seek to step up deportations of Syrians, despite unease about continued instability in their homeland.
Sharaa is scheduled to meet his counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president’s office said.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s office has yet to announce whether he would also hold talks with Sharaa during the visit.
Since ousting Syria’s longtime leader Bashar Assad in late 2024, Sharaa has made frequent overseas trips as the former Islamist rebel chief undergoes a rapid reinvention.
He has made official visits to the United States and France, and a series of international sanctions on Syria have been lifted.
The focus of next week’s visit for the German government will be on stepping up repatriations of Syrians, a priority for Merz’s conservative-led coalition since Assad was toppled.
Roughly one million Syrians fled to Germany in recent years, many of them arriving in 2015-16 to escape the civil war.
In November Merz, who fears being outflanked by the far-right AfD party on immigration, insisted there was “no longer any reason” for Syrians who fled the war to seek asylum in Germany.
“For those who refuse to return to their country, we can of course expel them,” he said.
- ‘Dramatic situation’ -
In December, Germany carried out its first deportation of a Syrian since the civil war erupted in 2011, flying a man convicted of crimes to Damascus.
But rights groups have criticized such efforts, citing continued instability in Syria and evidence of rights abuses.
Violence between the government and minority groups has repeatedly flared in multi-confessional Syria since Sharaa came to power, including recent clashes between the army and Kurdish forces.
Several NGOs, including those representing the Kurdish and Alawite Syrian communities in Germany, have urged Berlin to axe Sharaa’s planned visit, labelling it “totally unacceptable.”
“The situation in Syria is dramatic. Civilians are being persecuted solely on the basis of their ethnic or religious affiliation,” they said in a joint statement.
“It is incomprehensible to us and legally and morally unacceptable that the German government knowingly intends to receive a person suspected of being responsible for these acts at the chancellery.”
The Kurdish Community of Germany, among the signatories of that statement, also filed a complaint with German prosecutors in November, accusing Sharaa of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
There have also been voices urging caution within government.
On a trip to Damascus in October, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that the potential for Syrians to return was “very limited” since the war had destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure.
But his comments triggered a backlash from his own conservative Christian Democratic Union party.
