French President Emmanuel Macron called on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to join the international coalition to fight the Islamic State, Agence France-Presse reports. The two met on the sidelines of the COP30 climate conference in Belem, Brazil, where the leaders' meeting was held yesterday before the official opening of the forum, BTA reports.
“We are only days away from November 13“, Macron reminded, referring to the anniversary of the attacks in Paris in 2015. “Nobody forgets that the attacks were organized in Syria. This affects the security of the French“, he said the president.
He stressed that he expects Syria to become a “full participant“ in the fight against terrorist groups in the region.
Macron also welcomed the decision of the UN Security Council to lift sanctions against al-Sharaa - a move taken just days before his historic visit to the White House next Monday.
According to the French president, this step confirms Paris' strategy: to conduct a dialogue with the transitional Syrian leader in order to restore the unity and territorial integrity of the country, to limit drug production, to neutralize terrorist groups and to create conditions for the return of Syrian refugees.
Ahmed al-Sharaa's forces overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December last year. He then disbanded the “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham“ group, for whose leadership he was included in the UN sanctions list back in 2013 d.
The group was previously known as the “Al-Nusra Front“ - the Syrian branch of “Al-Qaeda“. In 2016, it officially severed ties with the organization in an attempt to change its image.
Today, Britain also announced that it was removing Ahmed al-Sharaa from its sanctions list, Reuters reported. London also lifted sanctions against Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hassan Khattab, which had been imposed for the same reasons.