EU: Political solution in Syria ‘precondition to resume relations with Assad’

The European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini said yesterday that a political solution in Syria is a precondition to normalising relations with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, the Anadolu Agency reported.

“Only a negotiated political solution – under the UN auspices – can bring peace to Syria. This is for us the obvious precondition for reconstruction and for a normalisation of relations with Damascus,” Mogherini told the 5th EU-Arab League ministerial meeting in Brussels, explaining that the EU would continue to support countries hosting Syrian refugees.

The EU will hold the Third Brussels Conference on Syria on 12-14 March.

France has recently announced a similar position to Mogherini’s which was also echoed by Egypt during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Cairo last week.

READ: Macron faces diplomatic test in Egypt amid human rights pressure

Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukri informed French officials that “Cairo does not support Syria’s return to the Arab League at the Tunis summit in March,” adding that he did not know “why Syria should be rewarded by returning to the Arab League, especially seeing as Bashar Al-Assad refuses to participate in any political path that leads to a solution.”

Syria’s membership in the Arab League was suspended in November 2011 after regime forces used force to crackdown on peaceful anti-government protests.