France's foreign minister said Thursday that sustaining the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group is an "absolute priority" for Paris, after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Damascus.
Jean-Noël Barrot is on the first stop of a regional tour as France reassesses how to tackle jihadists after Kurdish allies in Syria, who were guarding detained IS group militants, were forced to disband under pressure from Damascus.
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Barrot will move on to Iraq on Thursday afternoon before heading to Lebanon on Friday, according to the French foreign ministry.
In the Syrian capital, he met his counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani, with the pair discussing how to prevent a resurgence of IS group fighters after the Kurdish forces' withdrawal from swathes of northern Syria.
"For 10 years, France has fought relentlessly and mercilessly against the terrorists of Daesh in Iraq as well as in Syria," said Barrot, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group.
"I have come to reaffirm this absolute priority of France here in Syria."
Until now, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been the main partner on the ground of a western anti-jihadist coalition, but under military pressure from Damascus they are to integrate into the Syrian army.
"This tour stems from the convergence of two crises," a French diplomatic source said, referring to Barrot's trip.
"One that erupted very recently in northeastern Syria, with clashes between the Syrian authorities in Damascus and the Kurdish-dominated SDF, and the ever-present threat of a military escalation between the United States and Iran."
Western powers must now work with Syria's government to contain the IS group, the source said, but "there is not the same history, the same reflexes developed together, or the same bonds of trust", alluding to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's past as a jihadist.
Sharaa, who overthrew former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, has been seeking to impose his authority over all the country including Kurdish-controlled areas.
Other issues on Barrot's agenda will be the question of integrating Syria's myriad minorities into its new political landscape.
France has positioned itself as an advocate of Kurdish rights and will be pushing Damascus to comply with an agreement announced last week aimed at integrating Kurdish institutions and forces into the Syrian state.
The agreement dashed the Kurds' hopes of retaining an autonomous zone they had established in northern and northeastern Syria during a civil war that ravaged Syria between 2011 and 2024.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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