Brussels, 16 December 2024 (dpa/MIA) — The European Union will make contacts with the new Syrian leadership, the bloc's top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

Until recently, Brussels claimed to have no contact with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is largely responsible for Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.

Kallas has tasked a senior EU diplomat with going "to Damascus to make the contacts with the new government and people there," she said, arriving at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

Ministers however still have to discuss how they "engage with the new leadership of Syria and on what level," she added.

HTS is on the United Nations terror list and subject to EU sanctions. Kallas said time will tell whether this should be changed.

"Syria faces an optimistic, positive, but rather uncertain future."

"I think the coming weeks and months will show whether it goes in the right direction, and I think then we are also open to discuss [the] next steps."