By Riham Alkousaa
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -All Syrian groups, including women and Kurds, must be involved in the country's transition if Damascus wants European support, Germany's foreign minister said after a closely-watched first meeting with the new de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Friday.
In talks also attended by her French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, Germany's top diplomat Annalena Baerbock said she had stressed the need to include all ethnic groups in the transition to democracy while ensuring that potential European funds did not fall into the hands of "new Islamist structures".
"We discussed this in a very detailed and very clear manner," Baerbock told reporters after meeting Sharaa in the People's Palace in Damascus.
The foreign ministers of Germany and France, visiting Damascus on behalf of the European Union, said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and they urged a peaceful transition.
Baerbock and Barrot were the first European ministers to visit Syria since rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing President Bashar al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family's decades-long rule.
Their trip is intended to send a message of cautious engagement to the Islamist rebels led by Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), acknowledging their status as Syria's new rulers while also urging moderation and respect for minorities' rights.
"Our message to Syria's new leadership: respecting the principles agreed with regional actors and ensuring the protection of all civilians and minorities is of the utmost importance," Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, wrote on social media platform X about the trip.
SANCTIONS
Asked if the EU could soon start lifting sanctions imposed on Syria, Baerbock said this would depend on political progress. She cited "some positive signs", adding it was too early to act.
"The last few weeks have shown how much hope there is here in Syria that the future will be one of freedom... Free for everyone, regardless of their ethnic origin, gender or religion. But it is far from certain it will come this way," she said.
Since ousting Assad, Syria's new rulers have sought to reassure the international community that they will govern on behalf of all Syrians and not export Islamist revolution.
Western governments have begun to gradually open channels with Sharaa and HTS, a Sunni Muslim group previously affiliated with Al Qaeda and Islamic State, and are starting to debate whether to remove the group's terrorist designation.
A host of questions remain about the future of a multi-ethnic country where foreign states including Turkey and Russia have strong and potentially competing interests.
Baerbock said before the talks she was travelling to Syria with an "outstretched hand" as well as "clear expectations" of the new rulers, who she said would be judged by their actions.
"We know where the HTS comes from ideologically, what it has done in the past," she said in a statement.
France's Barrot similarly expressed hopes for a "sovereign and safe" Syria that would leave no room for terrorism, chemical weapons or malign foreign actors, during a meeting with representatives from Syrian civil society organisations.
Germany and France plan to offer technical help and advice to Syria as it drafts a new constitution, Barrot told reporters, saying hope for a democratic transition was "fragile but real".
He called for a political solution for Kurdish fighters in Syria to be integrated into the Syrian state, adding that a permanent ceasefire must be achieved. He did not respond when asked when the EU might lift sanctions on Syria.
Barrot also visited the French embassy, which has been closed since 2012, where he said France would work towards re-establishing diplomatic representation in line with political and security conditions, diplomatic sources said.
During their visit, the two ministers took a tour of Syria's most notorious prison, the vast Sednaya complex.