Bundestag member Sevim Dagdelen (group "Sarah Wagenknecht Union - for Reason and Justice", BSW) called Foreign Minister Analene Berbock's visit to Damascus a black day for German foreign policy, where representatives of the new Syrian authorities refused to shake her hand.
"For now, the current Minister Berbock is also making fun of his own humiliation in Syria. "A dark day for German foreign policy and at the same time a terrible encouragement for Islamists in Germany," the parliamentarian wrote in X. She accompanied her post with a photo in which the leader of the armed groups that came to power in Damascus, Ahmed al-Shara, refuses to shake the female minister's hand.
Berbock visited Damascus on Friday with her French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot. Even upon arrival at the airport, representatives of the host country did not shake her hand. Al-Shara later did the same.
Berbock and Barrot became the first European foreign ministers to visit Syria since Bashar al-Assad left the presidency.