Gerapetritis is the latest European foreign minister to visit Damascus. Here, he is seen in November 2024 in Athens [Murat Gok/Anadolu via Getty]
Syrian Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Greece’s visiting foreign minister Giorgos Gerapetritis in Damascus on Sunday, as more countries express readiness to build ties with a post-Assad Syria.
Al-Sharaa and his foreign minister in Syria’s interim government, Asaad al-Shibani, received “a high-level Greek delegation headed by Mr. Giorgos Gerapetritis, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece,” the Syrian presidency said on X.
No further details about the meeting were given, but came amid a flurry of diplomatic visits from regional and other countries in recent weeks. Top diplomats from Germany, France, Italy and Spain have already visited Syria and met with Al-Sharaa.
Greece had closed its embassy in Syria in July 2012, just over a year after the Syrian war began, and reopened it in June 2021 when Bashar al-Assad was still president of Syria.
Athens had moved to mend ties with Damascus at a time many Arab, European and global nations had refused to do so.
Assad and his regime were ousted in a lighting rebel offensive, led by Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, in December last year. The rebels are now governing the country for a transitional period.
EU foreign ministers last month agreed to begin easing sanctions on war-battered Syria, and foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said ministers had signed up to a “roadmap” for lifting the sanctions starting with key sectors such as energy where relief is needed most urgently.
