section_path: Policies/Foreign affairs
section_name: Foreign affairs
paragraph_text: Foreign affairs
  
  After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the governments of Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Oman, Turkey, Italy and France resumed diplomatic missions in Syria. The new government met diplomats from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union in the days immediately following the fall of the al-Assad regime. They met with diplomats from the United States on 20 December 2024.
  
  Additionally, Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since the Six-Day War in 1967. There have been various settlement schemes in the region, and it is not clear if the new Syrian government is planning to join the Abraham Accords soon.
  
  Belarus, North Korea and the partially recognized state of Abkhazia evacuated their embassy personnel on 15 December 2024. It is unknown if the new Syrian government plans to restore diplomatic relations with Georgia, which were severed in 2018 under the Assad regime. Ukraine plans to restore relations with Syria under the new regime, which were cut in 2022 after the previous regime recognized the quasi-states of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, which were annexed into Russia later that year.
  
  The first official foreign visit of a delegation of the Interim Government was to Saudi Arabia in the first days of 2025. The Syrian interim delegation was headed by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Defense, as well as the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, Anas Khattab. The visit came after al-Sharaa stated in an interview for the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya that Saudi Arabia is to have a "large role in Syria's future".
  
  The French and German foreign ministers visited Syria in early January 2025, where they met with al-Sharaa and expressed a will to "support Syria" but also stated that they would refuse to become "a financier of Islamist structures". They also stated that they wanted to see the Syrian Kurds, whose forces acted as French allies during the war, to be included in the political process, as well as cautioned the interim government against "acts of vengeance against groups within the population", unnecessarily delaying elections or attempts to enforce religious law within the judicial or education system. During the visit, al-Sharaa shook hands with the French Jean-Noël Barrot, but avoided shaking the female German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock 's hand, instead offering a small gesture on his chest. This caused a small scandal, as the two ministers stood side by side as he did so. This was criticized by the former head German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Volker Perthes, according to whom the refusal of handshakes with women is uncommon in Syria's tradition and is typically only seen by very conservative Islamist figures, such as those in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
  
  On 2 February 2025, Ahmed al-Sharaa and foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani visited Saudi Arabia and met with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This was Ahmed al-Sharaa's first foreign visit since the fall of the Assad regime. Later, on 4 February 2025, Ahmed al-Sharaa visited the Republic of Turkey as his second foreign visit and met with President Erdogan. On 12 February 2025, Syrian President al-Sharaa held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in what was the latter's first contact with a Syrian head of state since Assad's overthrow.
  
  During its invasion of Syria in December 2024, Israel took control of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) buffer area, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria. On 23 February 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda, and the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Syrian territory south of Damascus. On 25 February 2025, Syria condemned Israel's occupation of Syrian lands and demanded Israel's withdrawal. Hours later, Israel conducted a wave of airstrikes in Damascus and southern Syria.