Syria's Sharaa to Attend G7 SUmmit

Reuters ^ | 5/21/26 | Feras Delatey

[ek_hornbeck]

May 21 (Reuters) - Syria will attend the G7 summit in France next month as ‌a guest nation and be represented by President ‌Ahmed al-Sharaa, three sources familiar with the matter said, marking Syria's ​first participation in a summit of the group since the forum was founded in 1975.

An invitation to Sharaa to attend the June 15-17 summit in Évian-les-Bains, southeastern France, ‌was hand-delivered to Syrian ⁠Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh, who attended the group's financial talks earlier this week in ⁠Paris, one of the sources said.

The source, a Syrian official, said Syria's participation in the talks would likely focus ​on ​the country's role as a “potential ​strategic hub for supply ‌chains” following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: alquaeda; alsharaa; islamism; syria

[ek_hornbeck]

It's incredible that an unrepentant Al Quaeda fighter like Al Sharaa is treated as a legitimate political leader by the developed world - to the point of being welcome to a G7 summit, including by those who claim to be opposed to Islamism.

[mrmeyer]

It makes perfect sense when you see him as an instrument by which Assad was removed by the people that opposed him

[dfwgator]

Does this mean finally all those refugees who supposedly fled the Syrian war will now return to Syria?

[ek_hornbeck]

Does this mean finally all those refugees who supposedly fled the Syrian war will now return to Syria?

Don't bet on it. While they may subscribe to Ahmed Al Sharaa's Islamist ideology, that doesn't mean that they're willing to give up on the generous welfare benefits handed out to them courtesy of the European Union in exchange for a hardscrabble life back in Syria.

[dfwgator]

It was a rhetorical question.

[ek_hornbeck]

Funny, isn't it, how so many "refugees" subscribe to the ideologies of the nations that they fled, while having absolutely no desire to return there.

A good example of this could be seen in the UK when the Iranian Ayatollahs (and later various Arab Mullahs) declared Fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his Satanic Verses, which supposedly mildly satirized some Muslim teachings.

British Muslims (mostly Pakistanis) came out in droves into the streets of London and other major cities to march and protest after the Fatwa was declared, not in solidarity towards Rushdie (i.e. a fellow Muslim who found refuge in the UK), but in solidarity with the Ayatollahs and Mullahs who declared a death sentence on Rushdie. Seems to me that with that mindset they'd be so much better off in Pakistan.

[ek_hornbeck]

The outside parties who helped propped Al Sharaa up will regret doing so soon.

Once Sharaa gets the money and arms he needs from his enablers in the G7, he'll put away the suit and tie and go back to his former role as a mini-bin Laden, ready to bite the hand the fed him.