France to Send Diplomats to Syria on Tuesday

The sun rises over Damascus days after rebels seized the capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, December 12, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The sun rises over Damascus days after rebels seized the capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, December 12, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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France to Send Diplomats to Syria on Tuesday

The sun rises over Damascus days after rebels seized the capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, December 12, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The sun rises over Damascus days after rebels seized the capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Syria, December 12, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

France will send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation, the foreign ministry said, without specifying whom they would meet.

Most EU governments welcomed Bashar al-Assad's fall but are considering whether they can work with the opposition factions who ousted him, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group that is designated a terrorist organization by the EU.

"A team of French diplomats will travel to Syria this Tuesday to mark France's willingness to support the Syrian people," the ministry said, adding that they would report back to the foreign minister after a series of contacts there, Reuters reported.

Since cutting ties with Assad in 2012, France has not sought to normalize ties with Syria's government and has backed a broadly secular exiled opposition and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

French officials have met representatives of such groups and Paris has said a political transition in Syria must be credible and inclusive, in line with a framework set out by the United Nations.

Some diplomats say France's relations with Syria's new rulers could benefit from the fact it never sought to normalize ties with Assad.



Kremlin Says Putin Open to Normalizing Ties with Finland if Helsinki Wants to Rebuild Ties

Finnish President Alexander Stubb meets with British Prime Minster Keir Starmer (not pictured) at Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool
Finnish President Alexander Stubb meets with British Prime Minster Keir Starmer (not pictured) at Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool
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Kremlin Says Putin Open to Normalizing Ties with Finland if Helsinki Wants to Rebuild Ties

Finnish President Alexander Stubb meets with British Prime Minster Keir Starmer (not pictured) at Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool
Finnish President Alexander Stubb meets with British Prime Minster Keir Starmer (not pictured) at Number 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, March 31, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin was open to normalizing relations with Finland, which his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said were in a "sad state," if Helsinki wanted to rebuild ties.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb told his British counterpart Keir Starmer on Monday that Helsinki needs to "mentally prepare" for the restoration of ties with Russia, Reuters reported.

Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (800-mile) border with Russia, joined the NATO military alliance in 2023, which Moscow cast at the time as a dangerous historic mistake.