The EU’s invitation to Syria’s jihadi ruler to attend a conference in Brussels has sparked outrage as reports of mass atrocities against christians and other religious minorities in Syria continue to emerge.

The European Commission extended an invitation to Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to attend a donor conference in Brussels on March 17.

Over the weekend fighting between Syrian security forces (i.e. Western backed Al Qaeda) and pro-Assad loyalists in northwestern Syria resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths.

InfoWars reports: Shocking footage circulating on social media depicts executions, bodies being dragged behind vehicles, and extremist fighters chanting for the extermination of Alawites, a minority sect within Shia Islam.

Alongside Alawites, Christians have also been targeted for persecution under the rule of the new radical regime.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) documented over 740 civilians killed in Latakia, Jableh, and Banias, three coastal cities historically associated with Syria’s minority communities. The death toll has not been verified and could be significantly higher.

Remix News shared disturbing footage of a child holding a knife, surrounded by extremists calling the extermination of Alawites a “divine call.” The violence has been framed as retribution for the past rule of Bashar al-Assad, who belonged to the Alawite minority and was accused of suppressing Syria’s Sunni majority for decades.

While the United States issued a strong condemnation of the atrocities, the European Union’s response was notably more reserved.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the perpetrators of the massacres “radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis.” In a statement posted on X, Rubio declared: “The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families.”

He further urged Syria’s interim government to take swift action to “hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”

The European Union, by contrast, issued a more ambiguous statement, choosing to condemn “recent attacks, reportedly by pro-Assad elements, on interim government forces” rather than directly addressing the violence committed against minorities.

The EU called for respect for international humanitarian law and urged all external actors to respect Syria’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.

The invitation to President Al-Sharaa follows the EU Council’s decision last month to ease economic restrictions on Syria. The move, aimed at supporting Syria’s economic recovery and political transition, has been widely criticized given the ongoing sectarian violence. Key measures include the lifting of sanctions on Syria’s energy sector, easing financial restrictions, and removing five financial entities from the EU’s asset freeze list.

The EU’s approach has sparked fierce criticism from European politicians and observers, many of whom accuse the bloc of appeasing an Islamist regime.

Rob Roos, former vice president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party, lambasted the Commission’s decision, writing: “This is absurd! In Syria, non-Muslims and even moderate Muslims are being targeted in a genocide by HTS! The EU is no longer a peace project — it has become a war project, making one disastrous decision after another.”

German MEP Tomasz Froelich (AfD) echoed this sentiment, condemning Berlin’s €60 million donation to Syria’s interim government: “The German government has donated €60 million of German taxpayers’ money to the new rulers in Damascus. Meanwhile, the EU is backing the Islamist terror regime, which is slaughtering Alawites and Christians in full view of the world.”