Syria's leader set to visit Berlin with deportations in focus |
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will hold talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin Tuesday as Germany seeks to step up deportations of Syrians, despite unease about continued instability in their homeland.
On his first visit to Germany since ousting Syria's longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa is also set to meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The former Islamist rebel chief has made frequent overseas trips as he undergoes a rapid reinvention, including to the United States and France, and a series of international sanctions on Syria have been lifted.
The focus of next week's visit for the German government will be on stepping up repatriations of Syrians, a priority for Merz's conservative-led coalition since Assad was toppled.
Roughly one million Syrians fled to Germany in recent years, many of them arriving in 2015-16 to escape the civil war.
A German government spokesman said Berlin had an "interest........