Assad may be gone – but the hatred and division he left behind continue to fuel violence. There are still hundreds of violent flashpoints across the country. All religious communities are affected: The massacres of Alawites on the coast and the recent attack on Christians at the Mar Elias Church in Damascus make this painfully clear. Yesterday, the European Parliament held an urgent debate on the protection of religious minorities in Syria. A resolution was adopted, in which we:

• Strongly condemn the traumatic terrorist attack against the Mar Elias Church and all threats against worship sites, some of them historically significant
• Express our solidarity with all victims
• Urge Syrian authorities to improve their safety, and to undertake the restoration of the Mar Elias church
• Strongly condemn all attacks targeting religious and ethnic communities and acknowledges heightened fears among several of them, seven months into the political transition
• Urge the Syrian transitional authorities to facilitate swift, transparent and independent investigations into these acts, and take all necessary actions to quell sectarian violence, ensure accountability including by prosecuting perpetrators and enablers of human rights violations like in the case of Mar Elias and to uphold freedom of religion and protect all communities
• Reiterate the EU’s support, also through the conditional lifting of sanctions, for a human rights based political transition in Syria, with transitional justice, the fight against impunity, prohibiting arbitrary violence, and inclusive governance and a People’s Assembly as prerequisites for its success
• Call on the EU to set up a Syria Reconstruction Fund, conditional on demonstrable progress on these priorities and in coordination with relevant international institutions, that would promote interfaith dialogue, conflict resolution and reconciliation
• Calls on the European Commission to give priority to the Conference with Syrian civil society
• Draw attention to the vulnerability of Christian communities in Syria
• Call on the Council to maintain and add targeted sanctions on actors responsible for religious freedom violations in Syria
• Fordern wir die Achtung der territorialen Integrität Syriens.
  
  We Greens tabled an amendment reaffirming that Syria is not safe for the return of refugees and asylum seekers. Sadly, it was rejected. Still, one thing remains clear to me: We must resume asylum procedures, facilitate family reunification, and create safe ways to visit Syria – without forcing anyone to return.