German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had to forego a handshake from de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa during her visit to Damascus. “When I arrived, it was clear to me that there would obviously be no ordinary handshakes here,” she said when asked by a journalist. But it was also made clear to the Islamist hosts that they disapproved of this practice, said Baerbock.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, with whom she traveled to Damascus on behalf of the EU, also did not extend his hand for a handshake.
Above all, it was made clear in the conversation that women’s rights are an indicator of how free a society is, said Baerbock. At the end of the conversation, a handshake no longer seemed that difficult. It was heard from delegation circles that al-Sharaa extended his hand again at the end of the conversation, but that there was no longer a handshake.
Expert: That’s not good
Al-Sharaa, leader of the Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), welcomed Baerbock and Barrot in the former palace of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown around four weeks ago, in the capital Damascus. While the Islamist did not greet Baerbock with a handshake, he did extend his hand to Barrot. After the Frenchman first placed his right hand on the heart area as a greeting, he then briefly took al-Sharaa’s hand.
The former head of the Science and Politics Foundation, Volker Perthes, viewed the refused handshake as a bad sign. “That’s not good, even if we know it from other countries where extremely conservative Islamic men are in power: Iran, for example, and until some time ago also Saudi Arabia,” Perthes told the “Stern.” He added: ” This is not part of the tradition in Syria. I hope that al-Sharaa will also be criticized for this in Syria.”