EU member states seek normalisation with Syria's Assad

Eight member states of the European Union have called on the bloc to "review and assess" its policy towards Syria in a letter sent to the EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell.

The letter, originally seen by Euractiv, was signed by the foreign ministers of Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia.

It appears to suggest that the EU should take a more lenient approach to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has been under EU sanctions since 2011, over his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests and atrocities committed during the ensuing Syrian conflict.

"Our goal is a more active, outcome-drive, and operation Syria policy," the letter read, adding that such a policy "would allow us to increase out political leverage [and] the effectiveness of our humanitarian assistance."

According to Euractiv, the group of eight EU countries pitched the creation of an EU-Syria envoy that would re-engage with the Syrian regime and other Syrian and regional actors.

“Bitter as it is, with the help of Iran and Russia, the Assad regime remains firmly in the saddle, the Syrian opposition is fragmented or in exile altogether – the European Union cannot turn a blind eye to this reality any longer,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.

Aron Lund, a fellow with Century International think tank, told The New Arab that the EU's policy was "obviously long past its expiration date" and that both the Syrian war and European Union have changed since the strategy was first implemented in 2016.

Lund however noted that the Assad regime was unlikely to "find friends and forgiveness in Europe" after 13 years of conflict.

Syria's conflict has killed over 500,000 people, most of them as a result of indiscriminate regime bombardment of civilian areas. The Assad regime became an international pariah for many years as a result, although crucial support from Iran and Russia allowed it to regain most of the territory once held by rebel groups.

Despite this, Assad was welcomed back to the Arab League last year after more than 12 years of suspension.

The European countries' letter proposed "strategic exchange" with Arab countries to discuss Syria while also mentioning supposedly more efficient ways to deliver humanitarian aid.

In addition it talked about "creating the conditions for the return of Syrians in Europe".

Millions of Syrians have fled the country, many of them to Europe, as a result of the brutality of the regime's war and its oppressive rule, with human rights groups and NGOs repeatedly warning that Syria is still not safe to return to.

However, EU countries have adopted increasingly hostile stances to Syrian refugees in recent years amid a right-wing resurgence, with Denmark in particular forcing Syrians into repatriation camps.

"[The EU] has failed to extract even the most minor concession from Damascus, and meanwhile Syria is crumbling as a state, with socioeconomic and humanitarian trends pointing the wrong way," Julien Barnes-Dacey, the MENA Programme Director at the European Council on Foreign Relations said.

On Monday UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pederson warned that the country could once again be embroiled in a regional war, particularly due to the uptick in Israeli airstrikes on the country as part of the fallout from Israel's war on Gaza.

The coordination director of the UN's humanitarian office, Ramesh Rajasingham, also warned that Syrians are in the "worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict".

Pederson added: "The conflict is ultimately a political one that can only be resolved when the Syrian parties are able to realize their legitimate aspirations."

There are roughly one million Syrian refugees in Europe out of a total 6.6 million refugees.