Germany wants to help Syria return to being “a functioning state with full control over its territory”, its foreign minister said Friday ahead of a trip to Damascus.Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will join her French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus on Friday for talks on behalf of the European Union with Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led Islamist opposition forces in ousting Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in early December. For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Despite “skepticism” about Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces, “we must not miss the opportunity to support the Syrian people at this important crossroads”, Baerbock said as she travelled to join Barrot in Syria.She said the visit was a “clear signal” to Damascus of the possibility for a new relationship between Syria and Germany, and Europe more broadly.She also asked the new regime to avoid “acts of vengeance against groups within the population”, to avoid a long