Denmark: Siltanews – News Desk
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen confirmed Wednesday that Copenhagen plans to initiate diplomatic contact with new Syrian authorities at the beginning of next year, according to Danish state news.
In response to a question in parliament, the foreign minister said Denmark’s ambassador to Syria will travel to Damascus to begin dialogue with officials. Rasmussen said Denmark would work to ensure that there is “a hopeful” development in Syria after Assad. “Then there may be a situation in Syria so that people can return to Syria, and we avoid more refugees coming from Syria,” he added.
Rasmussen said separately in an interview with DR that he is pleased the Assad regime is gone but it was too early to assess if the country is safe for the many who have fled because of the civil war.
“Yes, it is 100 percent premature to just send Syrians home,” he said. “I think what you can learn from the Arab Spring and Libya is that this somewhat cheerful approach – that is, if the dictator is gone, then democracy flourishes – it does not work. It is also not good to have this 100 percent politically correct approach, which states that those we want to help in advance must meet all our demands,”
The foreign minister said Denmark would support Syria with humanitarian aid but emphasized that the support is conditional on Syria moving in the right direction.