Hello and welcome to Newsar from the BBC World Service,

coming to you live from our studios in central London.

I'm Julian Marshall.

And we begin today in Syria, where a high-level European Union delegation has been laying out its expectations of the country's new rulers.

The foreign ministers of Germany and France,

Annalena Baerbach and Ronuel Bajo,

are the most senior Western diplomats to visit Damascus

since Islamist led forces over through President Assad.

And while there, they held lengthy talks with Ahmed al-Shara,

now Syria's new ruler, after his Islamist group HTS, led the offensive that toppled Assad.

Ahead of the talks, the ministers visited Syria's notorious, had nigh a prison, where thousands

of opponents of Assad were detained, tortured and killed.

Mr. Barrow spoke to reporters.

We were struck in our souls by the barbarism that we discovered in the concentration camp hell of the Sednaia prison.

There cannot be a moral recovery for Syria unless justice is served.

And for this, we propose to the transition authorities

that France's technical expertise can contribute to the fight against impunity

and to the transitional justice system.

And after the meeting with Mr. Elshara, Ms. Baerbach said that Europe was prepared to support Syria

but would not support new Islamist structures.

And she outlined the kind of Syria that Europe wanted to see.

Better future for Syria means an inclusive, peaceful transfer of power, reconciliation and reconstruction.

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