A French diplomatic mission visits Damascus for the first time in 12 years news

The French Foreign Ministry said that it would send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation, without specifying which Syrian figures the Paris delegation is expected to meet.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in statements on Sunday to Radio France Internationale that the delegation consists of four diplomats and, in this first visit of its kind in 12 years, seeks to “recover our property there, establish initial contacts with the new authorities, and assess the urgent needs of the population at the humanitarian level.”

The delegation will also work to “verify whether the somewhat encouraging statements of this new authority, which called for calm and appear to have not been involved in violations, are actually being implemented on the ground.”

Most European Union governments welcomed the fall of Bashar al-Assad but are considering whether they can work with the opposition that ousted him, including Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham.

Since severing ties with the Assad regime in 2012, France has not sought to normalize relations with the Syrian government and has supported the secular Syrian opposition abroad as well as Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

French officials met with representatives of these groups, and Paris said that the political transition in Syria must be real and include everyone, in line with the framework set by the United Nations.

Some diplomats say that France’s relations with the new authorities in Syria may benefit from the fact that it has never sought to normalize relations with the regime of fugitive President Bashar al-Assad.

It is noteworthy that Muhammad al-Bashir, who was appointed to head the caretaker government until the first of next March, promised to make Syria a “state of law” and “guarantee the rights of all people.”