PARIS: France’s president urged the new authorities in the Syrian Arab Republic to consider a partnership with the Iraq-based international coalition fighting Daesh to prevent the country being destabilized in its transition period.
Syria’s foreign minister attended an international conference in Paris on Thursday where regional and Western powers looked into how to shield the country during its fragile transition amid ongoing instability across the Middle East.
Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani was leading a delegation for a first trip to the European Union since the December overthrow of Syria’s autocratic president Bashar Assad, and a few days after President Emmanuel Macron invited Syria’s transitional President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to France.
Speaking at the conference, France’s president said Paris was ready to do more to help the country tackle terrorist groups and to prevent Syria becoming once again a platform for Iranian militias to destabilize the region.
“Syria must clearly continue to fight against terrorist organizations that spread chaos in your country and who want to export it. That’s why the fight against Daesh and all terrorist groups is an absolute priority,” Macron said, adding that the transition should consider working with the Western-led Inherent Resolve operation in neighboring Iraq.
Regional ministers, including from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Lebanon, were joined by Western partners at the gathering, though the US had only a low-level diplomatic presence.
The meeting aimed to coordinate efforts to ensure Syria’s sovereignty and security through its transition, and mobilize its main neighbors and partners to coordinate aid and economic support, the French foreign ministry said.
“We want Syria to stop being used to destabilize the region. On the contrary, we want the Syrians to be able to focus today on the success of the transition and the recovery of their country,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the meeting.
The participants also planned to discuss transitional justice and the fight against impunity for those accused of abuses during Syria’s 13-year-long civil war.
The meeting did not aim to raise funds, which will be left to an annual pledging conference in Brussels on March 17, but issues such as the lifting of sanctions imposed on Syria during Assad’s iron-fisted rule were to be discussed.
The EU agreed in principle last month to lift sanctions but there has been no follow-through due to Greek and Cypriot objections to maritime boundary talks between Syria and Turkiye that affect waters claimed by Greece and Cyprus.
Greece and Cyprus also want assurances that sanctions could be restored quickly, two diplomats said.
They said they were hopeful a compromise could be reached this month. Barrot, whose country was expected to announce the reopening of the French embassy in Damascus on Thursday, said sanctions-lifting was a work in progress and German counterpart Annalena Baerbock said it would be done “step by step.”
Ahead of the meeting, the main international aid donors met in Paris to take stock of Syria’s humanitarian situation, notably in the northeast, where the impact of US aid cuts has had a “terrifying” impact, according to a European official.
France urges Syrian transitional government to partner coalition fighting Daesh
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France urges Syrian transitional government to partner coalition fighting Daesh
- Trump’s controversial decision to freeze foreign assistance has raised concerns in Syria, a country that had depended on hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from the US and now left in ruins by a civil war
Syrian army pushes into Aleppo district after Kurdish groups reject withdrawal
- Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force
ALEPPO, Syria: The Syrian army said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo city on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.
The violence in Aleppo has brought into focus one of the main faultlines in Syria as the country tries to rebuild after a devastating war, with Kurdish forces resisting efforts by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s Islamist-led government to bring their fighters under centralized authority.
At least nine civilians have been killed and more than 140,000 have fled their homes in Aleppo, where Kurdish forces are trying to cling on to several neighborhoods they have run since the early days of the war, which began in 2011.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Standoff pits government against Kurdish forces
• Sharaa says Kurds are ‘fundamental’ part of Syria
• More than 140,000 have fled homes due to unrest
• Turkish, Syrian foreign ministers discuss Aleppo by phone
ِA ceasefire was announced by the defense ministry overnight, demanding the withdrawal of Kurdish forces to the Kurdish-held northeast. That would effectively end Kurdish control over the pockets of Aleppo that Kurdish forces have held.
CEASEFIRE ‘FAILED,’ SECURITY OFFICIALS SAY
But in a statement, Kurdish councils that run Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud and Ashrafiyah districts said calls to leave were “a call to surrender” and that Kurdish forces would instead “defend their neighborhoods,” accusing government forces of intensive shelling.
Hours later, the Syrian army said that the deadline for Kurdish fighters to withdraw had expired, and that it would begin a military operation to clear the last Kurdish-held neighborhood of Sheikh Maksoud.
Two Syrian security officials told Reuters the ceasefire efforts had failed and that the army would seize the neighborhood by force.
The Syrian defense ministry had earlier carried out strikes on parts of Sheikh Maksoud that it said were being used by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to launch attacks on the “people of Aleppo.” It said on Friday that SDF strikes had killed three army soldiers.
Kurdish security forces in Aleppo said some of the strikes hit a hospital, calling it a war crime. The defense ministry disputed that, saying the structure was a large arms depot and that it had been destroyed in the resumption of strikes on Friday.
It posted an aerial video that it said showed the location after the strikes, and said secondary explosions were visible, proving it was a weapons cache.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claim.
The SDF is a powerful Kurdish-led security force that controls northeastern Syria. It says it withdrew its fighters from Aleppo last year, leaving Kurdish neighborhoods in the hands of the Kurdish Asayish police.
Under an agreement with Damascus last March the SDF was due to integrate with the defense ministry by the end of 2025, but there has been little progress.
FRANCE, US SEEK DE-ESCALATION
France’s foreign ministry said it was working with the United States to de-escalate.
A ministry statement said President Emmanuel Macron had urged Sharaa on Thursday “to exercise restraint and reiterated France’s commitment to a united Syria where all segments of Syrian society are represented and protected.”
A Western diplomat told Reuters that mediation efforts were focused on calming the situation and producing a deal that would see Kurdish forces leave Aleppo and provide security guarantees for Kurds who remained.
The diplomat said US envoy Tom Barrack was en route to Damascus. A spokesperson for Barrack declined to comment. Washington has been closely involved in efforts to promote integration between the SDF — which has long enjoyed US military support — and Damascus, with which the United States has developed close ties under President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire declared by the government overnight said Kurdish forces should withdraw by 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Friday, but no one withdrew overnight, Syrian security sources said.
Barrack had welcomed what he called a “temporary ceasefire” and said Washington was working intensively to extend it beyond the 9 a.m. deadline. “We are hopeful this weekend will bring a more enduring calm and deeper dialogue,” he wrote on X.
TURKISH WARNING
Turkiye views the SDF as a terrorist organization linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and has warned of military action if it does not honor the integration agreement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Thursday, expressed hope that the situation in Aleppo would be normalized “through the withdrawal of SDF elements.”
Though Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who belongs to the Sunni Muslim majority, has repeatedly vowed to protect minorities, bouts of violence in which government-aligned fighters have killed hundreds of Alawites and Druze have spread alarm in minority communities over the last year.
The Kurdish councils in Aleppo said Damascus could not be trusted “with our security and our neighborhoods,” and that attacks on the areas aimed to bring about displacement.
Sharaa, in a phone call with Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Friday, affirmed that the Kurds were “a fundamental part of the Syrian national fabric,” the Syrian presidency said.
Neither the government nor the Kurdish forces have announced a toll of casualties among their fighters from the recent clashes.
