Baerbock meets Syria’s foreign minister
Now he shakes her hand
Updated on January 13, 2025 – 8:48 a.mReading time: 1 Min.
The Syrian Foreign Minister greeted Annalena Baerbock with a handshake. About a week ago, the new ruler in Damascus refused to make this gesture.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Syria’s de facto Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani greeted each other with a handshake at a meeting in Saudi Arabia. The meeting took place on the sidelines of a Syria conference in Riyadh.
A week ago, Baerbock’s visit to Damascus caused a stir when Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa refused to shake her hand. Al-Sharaa, on the other hand, shook hands with her French colleague Jean-Noël Barrot.
In Islamic societies, it is often unusual for believers to greet each other with a handshake. Some legal scholars even consider this to be forbidden, although there is no uniform regulation on this. The reactions to such greeting rituals therefore vary greatly depending on the cultural context.
After the incident in Damascus, Baerbock said that it was clear to her when she arrived that there would be no ordinary handshakes there. However, she also emphasized that it had been made clear to the hosts that they disapproved of this practice.
The region is currently closely monitoring how the transitional government from the Islamist group HTS handles the rights of women and whether they are allowed to participate in public life.