The European Union, the US and Germany ruled out a diplomatic rapprochement with Damascus after Syria readmitted to the Arab League at the weekend.

The EU’s position on Syria “has not changed”, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, summarized yesterday Monday in Brussels. “Which means: no normalization of relations, no reconstruction without normalization, no lifting of sanctions until there is significant movement by the regime to undo all the reasons they were imposed,” he added. “We will discuss again with member states at the appropriate level as early as this week the recent decision of the Arab League and the potential implications for us.”

A State Department spokesman said Washington “does not believe Syria deserves to rejoin the Arab League.” The spokesman, Vedant Patel, added that “I will note that we share a number of common goals with our Arab partners regarding Syria, including reaching a solution to the Syrian crisis in a manner consistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.” US diplomacy assumes that its partners will use direct contacts with Damascus to make demands on these issues, he added, insisting that normalization of relations is not even being discussed in the US.

The German Foreign Ministry, for its part, decided yesterday that there is no basis for the normalization of relations with the Syrian regime, which it blamed for continuing to commit gross violations of human rights and obstructing the political process. “From this point of view, unfortunately nothing has changed in terms of reality in the field that would allow us to offer our support to things like reconstruction or the lifting of sanctions,” according to a representative of German diplomacy. While “in our view, Syria currently does not fulfill any of the conditions for the dignified return of refugees”, he added.