UPDATE - EU diplomat to make contacts with Syria's new gov't in Damascus: Foreign policy chief

UPDATES WITH REMARKS FROM SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - The EU foreign policy chief on Monday said that she tasked the bloc's top diplomat in Syria to go to Damascus and make contacts with the new Syrian government.

"I've tasked European top diplomat in Syria to go to Damascus to make contacts with the new government and people there," Kaja Kallas said in her doorstep speech ahead of the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.

"Our top diplomat in Syria will go to Damascus today," Kallas added.

Meanwhile, she said the bloc's foreign ministers will discuss in today's meeting in Brussels how and on what level they will engage with the new leadership of Syria.

Recalling Saturday's meetings in Jordan with Arab nations, Türkiye and the US on the matter, she said: "It's very important that the regional actors as well as the international actors see the picture in the same way, and want this country to be stable, peaceful and an all comprising government in place."

- Spain to send chargé d'affaires in Damascus

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, during his doorstep, said that this week, the Spanish charge d'affaires will return to the embassy in Damascus, where a special envoy will also be sent to begin dealing with the new Syrian authorities.

"I announce that this very week, we intend to send Spain's charge d'affaires back to Damascus. For security reasons, they had been stationed in Beirut after assisting in the evacuation of a convoy of Spaniards who had left Syria," Albares said. "Additionally, we will appoint a special envoy to strengthen our embassy in Damascus."

The idea is to join the European countries that are engaging with the new authorities, he said.

"These new contacts, obviously -- and I will ask the European Union to maintain them as well -- must be clearly understood as very preliminary contacts. Above all, they are contacts to convey clear red lines: the need for Syria's future to be a peaceful one," he added.

He said that Spain will also assist and collaborate to ensure that Syria maintains its territorial integrity, with no areas of the country under the control of various armed groups.

During the ministerial meeting, the minister said, they will discuss the possible return of Syrian refugees to Syria as there are millions of Syrian refugees in Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, and also in Europe.