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

Top diplomats from the Middle East and Europe are due in the Saudi capital on Sunday to discuss Syria as world powers push for stability after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.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 European Union and the United Nations, a Saudi official told AFP on Saturday.The gathering takes place as Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose forces seized Damascus and toppled long-time ruler Assad last month, is pushing for sanctions relief.Western powers, including the United States and the European Union, slapped sanctions on Assad’s government over his brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 that triggered civil war.More than 13 years of conflict in Syria have killed more than half a million people, ravaged the economy, and pushed millions to flee their homes, including to Europe.The European Union’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 protects 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, the biggest economy in the Middle East, has sent food, shelter and medical supplies to Syria overland 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?”- Cautious approach -The meetings on Sunday represent a continuation of talks on post-Assad Syria held last month in Jordan, the Saudi official said.The Turkish and German foreign ministers are among the officials who had confirmed their attendance as of Saturday evening.US Under Secretary of State John Bass is also set to attend, coming from talks in Turkey that partially 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 re-open embassies in Damascus after the fall of Assad, said Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi politics at the University of Birmingham.Yet 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.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.