<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, assured this Monday that the chargé d'affaires of the Spanish Embassy in Damascus will return to his post in the Syrian capital “this week” and confirmed the upcoming appointment of a “special envoy” to this country with the mission of “transmitting clear red lines” to the new authorities that emerged from the overthrow of the Bashar al Assad regime.</strong></h4> “The idea is that Spain also joins the European countries that are having contacts with the new authorities,” declared Albares in Brussels upon his arrival at the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (CAE). “These new contacts must be made clear that they are very preliminary contacts and above all they are to transmit clear red lines,” he added. To this end, he announced, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is going to reinforce the Spanish Embassy in Damascus by the return to the country, “this week”, of the chargé d'affaires and the appointment of a special envoy for Syria. The Embassy was reduced to the bare minimum in 2012 after Spain decided to withdraw its ambassador in Damascus in retaliation for the repressive policy of the Al Assad regime against anti-government protests. Since then, the representation has been headed by a chargé d'affaires residing in Beirut. Albares already announced last Tuesday, during the press conference following the meeting of the Council of Ministers, his intention to appoint “a special envoy for Syria”. The European Commission has already sent a special representative to Syria to initiate contacts with the new authorities. Among the aforementioned “red lines”, Albares mentioned “that the future of Syria be a peaceful future, that what is today a military movement become a political movement (in reference to Hayat Tahrir al Sham, HTS, the jihadist armed group that led the overthrow of Al Assad) and that it be an inclusive future with scrupulous respect for ethnic and religious minorities”. He also defended the territorial integrity of Syria, avoiding the division of the country “in the hands of different armed groups” and that “external interference” that could aggravate the “instability and insecurity” in Syria be avoided. Regarding the future of Syrian refugees welcomed in Europe over the last ten years, Albares assured that “Spain has not suspended asylum applications by Syrian citizens”. "We will be very scrupulous in ensuring that the return of refugees to Syria is a safe return, in which human rights are respected and that it is done according to the criteria set by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency," he said.
