Karner does not travel to Syria after warnings

Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) canceled his planned trip to Syria on Thursday with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser (SPD) due to specific warnings of a terrorist threat. "The potential threat to the delegations and the deployed security forces was not justifiable," the Interior Ministry announced early Thursday morning. The decision was made jointly by both ministries.

Karner currently in Jordan

Karner and Faeser are currently in the Jordanian capital Amman. The onward journey to the Syrian capital Damascus, planned for the morning, was canceled. The focus of the discussions would have been security issues and perspectives for the return of Syrian refugees in the event of Syria's stabilization. The trip had not been announced in advance and was planned under high security precautions, according to the ministry. According to Faeser, the trip is to be rescheduled. According to the dpa news agency, there is no new date yet.

Planned were discussions between Faeser and Karner as well as representatives of the United Nations, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. Meetings with the interior and foreign ministers of the Syrian transitional government were also on the agenda. The minister will now have an appointment with the UNHCR in Jordan and then return to Austria, a spokesperson told APA upon request.

"Our conversation partners in Jordan have encouraged us in our efforts to make contact with representatives of the Syrian transitional government," Karner explained in a statement to the APA. "The goal must be to bring more stability to the region." After threats against western facilities or delegations, the trip had to be canceled for security reasons. "The goal remains unchanged: We want to deport criminals and threats back to Syria." These issues should be discussed with the Syrian transitional government at the earliest possible time.

The incident shows that the security situation in Syria remains fragile, said a spokesperson for the German minister. The Greens also described the situation in the country as "anything but stable and secure." Austria's interests must primarily be directed towards "contributing to the stabilization of the situation in Syria within its means," said Agnes Sirkka Prammer, security spokesperson for the Greens, in a statement. The cancellation of Karner's Syria trip also clearly showed that "our security forces and our intelligence are doing an excellent job." It is good that their expertise is being followed.

Numerous Syrians have returned

Since the overthrow of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad last December, an estimated total of 280,000 Syrians have returned to their homeland from abroad, according to the latest United Nations estimates. Almost 30 percent of the millions of Syrian refugees in the Middle East want to return next year, according to the UN.

According to Statistics Austria, 104,699 Syrians live in Austria (as of 11.2.). After the fall of the Assad regime, asylum decisions for Syrians were suspended and more than 2,400 revocation procedures were initiated. On Wednesday, the government also decided on a pause in family reunification for refugees. This year, only 39 Syrians received asylum status.

In Germany, around 972,000 Syrian nationals were living at the end of February, reports the dpa. Among them were around 10,600 who were obliged to leave. About 9,500 of them had a temporary suspension of deportation. For more than two months, the German Ministry of the Interior has been working on a regulation that would allow refugees from Syria to travel back to their homeland for a short time without risking their protection status in Germany.

Hundreds of Thousands Dead in the Syrian Civil War

Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, which started in 2011 with the brutal suppression of protests against the Assad government, more than 500,000 people have been killed. Millions fled the war, economic and humanitarian hardship to neighboring and other countries. In Turkey alone, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Syria, around 2.9 million Syrian refugees live.

Assad was overthrown on December 8 by a rebel alliance led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Assad fled to Russia. Since then, the country has been led by a transitional government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Three weeks ago, a surprise attack by Alawite Assad supporters triggered a military action in the coastal region in the northwest, resulting in hundreds of deaths - including many Alawite civilians. In contrast, there are positive developments such as the agreement of a pact between the transitional government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on March 10.

According to Western intelligence assessments, both supporters of the old guard of ex-President Assad and their Iranian allies have an interest in the failure of the transitional government, as do Sunni Islamists who dislike the new rulers' openness to Western governments.

Just last week, Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock reopened the German embassy in Damascus, which had been closed since 2012 for security reasons. The reassessment of the security situation, which has now led to the cancellation of the trip by Karner and Faeser, reportedly also has short-term consequences for the operational capability of the German embassy in Damascus. After the reopening, it only resumed operations in a very limited form. Consular matters are still handled by the representation in Beirut.

(APA/Red)

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