Syrian president cancels Germany visit: Berlin

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has canceled a planned visit to Berlin this week, a German government spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The visit scheduled for Tuesday, which had been due to focus on Germany’s efforts to step up the repatriation of Syrians, “was postponed by the Syrian side,” the spokeswoman said.

Al-Sharaa on Sunday announced an agreement with the chief of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, that includes a ceasefire after government forces advanced into Kurdish-held areas of the north and east.

Al-Sharaa said he would meet Abdi on Monday to finalize details of the agreement.

On what would have been his first visit to Germany since ousting Syria’s longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, al-Sharaa had been set to meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

A German government spokesman said last week that Berlin had an “interest in deepening and finding a new start with the new Syrian government.”

The return of Syrians to their home country had been on the agenda, he said.

Roughly one million Syrians have fled to Germany in recent years, many of them arriving in 2015-16 to escape the civil war.