Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara has cancelled a two-day visit to Germany that was planned to start on Monday due to the political situation in Syria, a German government official has said.
“We can confirm that Syrian President Al Shara has postponed his visit due to domestic politics,” a German Foreign Office official told The National.
The spokesperson did not provide further details. Mr Al Shara announced late on Sunday that he had struck a deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces after weeks of fighting in Aleppo. Under this, the SDF has ceded control of territory in Deir Ezzor and Raqqa provinces, withdrawing to Kurdish-majority areas in Hasakah province.
The return of Germany's large Syrian diaspora to their home country was one of the scheduled topics of discussion between Mr Al Shara and Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Talks with German business leaders were also on the agenda.
A state visit to Germany would have been Mr Al Shara's second trip to a European capital. Last May, he travelled to Paris for his first visit to a western country since his Hayat Tahrir Al Sham group led the overthrow of former Syrian president Bashar Al Assad in December 2024.
Syria has in the past year strengthened ties with Europe and the US after decades of diplomatic isolation under the Assad regime. On a recent visit to Damascus, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the new government could count on Europe to support efforts for a peaceful transition in Syria.
There are hopes in Damascus that Germany − the economic powerhouse of the EU − could be a significant contributor to rebuilding war-shattered Syria. The World Bank estimates this could cost $216 billion.
Few Syrians leaving Germany
Syria's new leadership has called on the diaspora to return home. While more than one million Syrians living in neighbouring countries including Lebanon and Turkey have done so in the past year, very few have left Europe, where their living conditions are higher.
The civil war has devastated Syria's economy, pushing about 90 per cent of Syrians into poverty. Basic infrastructure, including electricity, water and health services, remain scarce.
In Germany, which hosts the largest Syrian diaspora in Europe at around one million people, less than 2,000 have gone back to Syria. Mr Merz is under pressure from the German far-right to persuade Syrians to leave.
German officials say Syrians have come to play an important role in the labour market. Around half of the 685,000 Syrians of working age in Germany are currently employed, according to Federal Employment Agency figures quoted by German broadcaster DW. For those who arrived in 2015, that figure stands at 60 per cent.
There have also been reports of concerns among Syrians in Germany about Mr Al Shara's capacity to protect minority rights. DW reported that the Congress of Yazidis in Diaspora said Mr Al Shara's visit raised “fundamental questions about the coherence of state action and the protection of the interests of victim communities who have found protection in Germany.”
The most important security incidents in Syria in the past year have pitted minorities against armed groups that have been in some cases affiliated to the new authorities.
European leaders have also said that they would closely monitor how Mr Al Shara engages with minorities, which include western-backed Kurdish groups. French President Emmanuel Macron has been closely involved in the latest ceasefire talks. He spoke with Mr Al Shara and Nerchirvan Barzani, President of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, over the weekend.
Mr Al Shara has signalled that he attaches importance to the planned peaceful reintegration of autonomous Kurdish regions into the Syrian state. On Friday, he issued a decree recognising Kurdish as a national language and granting citizenship to all Kurds − a right many had been deprived of under the Assad regime.
