France to send diplomats to Syria on Tuesday

PARIS (Reuters) - France will send a team of diplomats to Syria on Tuesday to assess the political and security situation, the foreign ministry said, without specifying whom they would meet.

Most EU governments welcomed Bashar al-Assad's fall but are considering whether they can work with the rebels who ousted him, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group that is designated a terrorist organisation by the EU.

"A team of French diplomats will travel to Syria this Tuesday to mark France's willingness to support the Syrian people," the ministry said, adding that they would report back to the foreign minister after a series of contacts there.

Since cutting ties with Assad in 2012, France has not sought to normalise ties with Syria's government and has backed a broadly secular exiled opposition and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

French officials have met representatives of such groups and Paris has said a political transition in Syria must be credible and inclusive, in line with a framework set out by the United Nations.

Some diplomats say France's relations with Syria's new rulers could benefit from the fact it never sought to normalise ties with Assad.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Giles Elgood)

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