The interior ministers of Germany and Austria, Nancy Faeser of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Gerhard Karner of The Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), have cancelled a planned visit to Syria at short notice over security concerns.
A speaker for the German interior ministry said the decision came after concrete indications of a terror threat. “It could not be ruled out that the threat related to the German and Austrian delegations,” the spokesperson continued.
No information has been published on the nature of the threat, nor from which group the threat emerged.
Western security services have said that both supporters of former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and Sunni Islamists who did not condone the current Syrian Government’s shift towards the West were trying to sabotage the provisional administration.
Faeser and Karner are both in the Jordanian capital of Amman and were meant to travel to Damascus on March 27 on a German airforce plane. The decision to cancel the visit was made by both ministers jointly.
On the trip – which was not announced prior to the cancellation notice – Faeser and Karner were meant to meet with representatives of the new Syrian transitional government of Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly wanted by the US for Islamist terrorism with a $10 million (€9.27 million) bounty on his head, as well as representatives of several United Nations organisations including UNHCR, UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
The talks were to focus on security issues as well as perspectives for the repatriation of Syrian refugees in Europe. As of February 2025, there were 105,000 Syrians living in Austria and about 1 million living in Germany.
One main goal of the ministers was to send criminals back to Syria. “Germany and Austria are hard at work to allow the repatriation of Syrian criminals as fast as possible,” the German interior ministry said.
These questions were meant to be negotiated with the new Syrian Government as soon as possible but the current terrorist threat indicated the security situation in Syria remained fragile, according to the ministries.
Both ministers will now meet with UNHCR representatives in Jordan and then return to their home countries.
On March 17, at a Brussels conference, European Union countries approved development aid for Syria amounting to almost €6 billion – €4.2 billion in subsidies and €1.6 billion in loans.
“Syrians need more support, no matter whether they live abroad or decide to return home”, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the move was agreed.
