I am today updating the House following my visit to Syria, where I met President Al-Sharaa and renewed the bilateral diplomatic relationship. This was the first visit by a UK Minister in over 14 years and marks the beginning of a new chapter in our relationship with Syria.
Eight months on from the fall of Assad, who subjected the Syrian people to 14 years of brutal civil war, it is right that we engage with the new Government. A stable Syria is in the UK’s interests: peace means fewer people being exploited by people smuggling gangs in Europe and making perilous journeys on small boats to Britain. By engaging with the Syrian Government, the UK is helping to ensure the protection of human rights, the safe destruction of Assad’s chemical weapons programme, and progress towards combating terrorism and extremism, including from Daesh.
I had a productive meeting with President Al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Al-Shaibani, during which we discussed the full breadth of the UK-Syria relationship. We discussed the importance of stability, and a political transition that delivers for the Syrian people. I stressed the importance of tackling security threats to the UK, reducing the drivers of irregular migration and improving the conditions to enable Syrians in the UK and across the region to return home.
The pace of change in Syria has been encouraging. I welcome the commitment to hold free and fair elections and the representative appointments made to the Cabinet in March. It is important that the transition proceeds in a genuinely inclusive and representative way and respects the rights of all Syrians, regardless of ethnic or religious background.
The Syrian Government have committed to a brighter future. Immediate priorities should include the implementation of a deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces, a focus on social cohesion and an improved response to sectarian violence, and the protection of human rights.
There still remains much to do. We will continue to judge the new Government on the action they take to deliver on these commitments.
We welcome the commitment made by Foreign Minister Al-Shaibani to co-operate fully with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to ensure that Assad’s chemical weapons programme is finally declared and destroyed. During my visit, I announced a further £2 million to support the OPCW in this vital work. This follows an earlier UK contribution of £837,000, part of which helped facilitate three OPCW deployments to Syria. The UK has also developed a further package of logistical and technical support for OPCW and Syria, and continues to encourage partners to follow our lead in supporting this essential work. The MOD, with FCDO, will provide a further update on this activity in due course.
The UK has long stood by the people of Syria and will continue to do so. The scale of the challenge facing the Government and ordinary Syrians, as they emerge from almost 14 years of conflict, is immense: the economy is broken, 90% of the population are in poverty and over 16 million people require humanitarian assistance. While in Damascus, I announced a further £94.5 million to provide urgent humanitarian aid to Syrians, and to support Syria’s longer-term recovery through education and livelihoods, and countries hosting Syrian refugees in the region.
The UK was one of the first to relieve sanctions—and lifted several sanctions on key sectors in April, and asset freezes in March on entities including the Central Bank of Syria. Our focus now is on supporting Syrians to rebuild their country and economy and to create the conditions to boost trade and investment. In my meeting with Foreign Minister Al-Shaibani, we agreed to work together on establishing a UK-Syria business council.
As I said on my visit, the UK is re-establishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new Syrian Government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.
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