An awkward scene without ordinary greetings was expected, the foreign minister has said
The refusal of Syria’s de facto leader to shake hands with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was expected, the top German diplomat has admitted.
Baerbock and her French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, made a surprise visit to Syria on Friday, meeting the country’s de facto leader, the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, best known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani.
The meeting started off with an awkward scene when al-Sharaa offered a handshake to Barrot but explicitly avoided shaking hands with Baerbock, placing his right hand on his heart instead. The new Syrian leader is known for refusing to shake hands with women due to his hardline Islamist views. The French foreign minister almost managed to dodge al-Sharaa’s hand, while Baerbock appeared to initially reach for the new Syrian leader, clapping her hands in the air instead.
“As I traveled here, it was clear to me that there would obviously be no ordinary handshakes,” Baerbock told German media late Friday.
“But it was also clear… that not only I, but also the French foreign minister, did not share this view. And accordingly, the French foreign minister did not extend his hands,” she said.
During the meeting with al-Sharaa, the two ministers raised the issue of women’s rights in the country, receiving acknowledgement “from the new Syrian authorities that there will be broad participation – particularly by women – in the political transition,” Barrot said in a post on X.
Militant groups spearheaded by HTS jihadists launched a surprise offensive against the government of now-former President Bashar Assad in November last year. The attack resulted in the collapse of the Syrian military in a matter of days and the downfall of Assad’s government.
