By John Irish
PARIS (Reuters) – Syria’s foreign minister will attend an international conference in Paris on Thursday as regional and Western powers seek to shield the country during its fragile transition amid ongoing instability across the region.
Asaad Hassan al-Shibani is leading a delegation for a first trip to the European Union since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and days after President Emmanuel Macron invited Syria’s UN-sanctioned President Ahmed al-Sharaa to France.
“This Paris meeting in a way is to help create a protective bubble around the Syria crisis to give them time to resolve it by dissuading the bad losers from destabilising the country,” a French official said.
Regional ministers, including from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Lebanon, will be joined with Western partners, although the United States will only have a low level diplomatic presence.
The meeting aims to coordinate efforts to bring a peaceful transition ensuring the country’s sovereignty and security, mobilise Syria’s main neighbours and partners to coordinate aid and economic support, the French foreign ministry said.
It will also discuss transitional justice and the fight against impunity.
The conference does not aim to raise funds, which will be left to an annual pledging conference in Brussels in March, but issues such as the lifting of sanctions would be discussed.
The EU has moved forward in lifting some sanctions, although that still remains blocked amid opposition from Cyprus and Greece amid concerns over maritime delimitation talks between Syria and Turkey and assurances that sanctions could be restored quickly, two diplomats said.
They said they were hopeful a compromise could be reached this month.
Ahead of the meeting, main international donors will also take stock of the humanitarian situation, notably in northeastern Syria, where the impact of U.S. aid cuts has had a “terrifying” impact, according to a European official.
Officials also said the subject of Western-backed Kurdish Syrian forces, the central government and Turkey, which deems part of those forces as terrorist groups, would also be discussed.
A Turkish diplomatic source said Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yilmaz, who will attend the meeting, would “draw attention to the threats Syria is facing, namely the separatist terrorist organisation and emphasise our country’s determination regarding the total clearance of the country from terror elements.”
(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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