Arab, EU diplomats in Saudi for talks on support for Syria

RIYADH: Top diplomats from the Middle East and Europe were arriving in the Saudi capital on Sunday to discuss Syria, as world powers push for stability after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest economy, is seeking to increase its influence in Syria after Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad last month, analysts say.

The talks on Sunday will unfold in two sessions: the first will bring together Arab officials, while the second will feature wider participation, including from Turkey, France, the EU and the UN, a Saudi official told AFP on Saturday.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the main rebel group in the alliance that overthrew Assad, is pushing for sanctions relief.

Western powers, including the US and the EU, imposed sanctions on Assad’s government over his brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011, which triggered the civil war.

More than 13 years of conflict have killed over half a million Syrians, left infrastructure destroyed and the people impoverished, while millions have fled their homes, including to Europe.

The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said on Friday that the 27-nation bloc could begin lifting sanctions if Syria’s new rulers took steps to form an inclusive government that protected minorities.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Assad’s government in 2012 and had long openly championed his ouster. But, in 2023, it hosted an Arab League meeting at which Assad was welcomed back into the regional fold.

This month, the Gulf kingdom has sent food, shelter and medical supplies to Syria over land and by plane.

Riyadh is now negotiating how to support the war-struck country’s transition beyond that.

“This summit sends the message that Saudi Arabia wants to take the lead on coordinating the regional effort to support Syria’s recovery,” said Anna Jacobs, non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

“But, the big question is how much time and how many resources will Saudi Arabia devote to this effort? And what is possible with many of the sanctions remaining in place?”

The meetings on Sunday represent a continuation of talks on post-Assad Syria held last month in Jordan, the Saudi official said.

After those talks in Aqaba, diplomats called in a joint statement for a Syrian-led transition to “produce an inclusive, non-sectarian and representative government formed through a transparent process”.

The statement also stressed “respect for human rights” and the importance of combating “terrorism and extremism”, demanding all parties cease hostilities in Syria.

Turkey’s foreign minister had confirmed he would attend Sunday’s meeting. Iraq’s top diplomat was also in Riyadh for the gathering, and AFP saw Germany’s foreign minister at the conference venue.

US under secretary of state John Bass is also set to attend, coming from talks in Turkey that partly covered “the importance of regional stability, preventing Syria from being used as a base for terrorism, and ensuring the enduring defeat” of the Islamic State group, the state department said.

Saudi Arabia is among the countries taking a more cautious approach to Syria’s new administration than Turkey and Qatar, which were the first to reopen embassies in Damascus after the fall of Assad, said Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.

But, Riyadh is “positively approaching” the new leaders in Syria, looking to see if they can bring stability and “control the more extreme elements in (their) ranks”, Karim said.

The group that Sharaa leads, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, but, broke that link years ago and has sought to moderate its image.

Sunday’s gathering “gives Riyadh an opportunity to increase its sway with the new Syrian government, and cultivate greater influence in a country where Turkey and Qatar now have more sway”, Jacobs said.