| BRUSSELS
BRUSSELS The European Union will not pay towards rebuilding post-war Syria if Moscow and Damascus leave no space in the future for opposition to President Bashar al-Assad’s government, according to a draft joint statement from the EU’s 28 leaders.
For weeks, Syrian, Russian and Iranian firepower has pounded rebels – including those backed by the West and Turkey – in what was their main urban stronghold of Aleppo. On Tuesday, thousands of people fled the city with rebel defeat seemingly imminent.
Establishing full control over Aleppo would mark government forces’ biggest battlefield victory yet in the conflict that has raged for nearly six years, killing more than 300,000 people.
But, even if the rebels are defeated, the EU says no peace can hold in Syria as Damascus would face years of guerrilla warfare and the country could fall apart if power is not decentralised or devolved to give the opposition a role.
“The EU will provide support for Syria’s reconstruction only once a credible political transition is firmly under way,” the EU leaders will say on Thursday, according to the statement prepared for their meeting in Brussels and seen by Reuters.
The bloc’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini has been delivering this message to Middle Eastern regional players – some of which are waging proxy wars in Syria – for several weeks, sources say.
The EU has already signalled it would press for more sanctions on Damascus but is not ready to impose any on Russia.
“The EU would normally have a key role in reconstruction. But if they create this monster there, we just won’t pay for it. It’ll be their responsibility,” one EU official said, referring to Damascus, Moscow and their allies in the war.
Encouraged by November’s U.S. presidential election victory by Donald Trump, who has vowed to improve Washington’s ties with Moscow, the Kremlin has intensified its campaign in Syria.
An internal document prepared by Mogherini’s service, which was also seen by Reuters, informing her contacts with top officials from Qatar, to Iran to Turkey of the same message: that Assad critics must have a role in the future of Syria.
Its stipulations include an “inclusive” political system to ensure “broad social and political representation”.
(Editing by Louise Ireland)
