Italy has offered itself as a mediator in building EU relations with Syria.
Italy is willing to act as a mediator in building the European Union’s relations with Syria, where the regime of long-time authoritarian President Bashar Assad was overthrown in December. This was said by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who was in Syria on an official visit on Friday, TASR reports, according to a report by the DPA agency.
“Italy is ready to play its role in supporting the reform process in Syria,” Tajani said on Friday after meeting in Damascus with the new Syrian leader, Ahmad Shar, the leader of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was at the head of the offensive leading to the overthrow of Assad in December.
Shara reportedly told Tajani that he is ready to block “illegal immigration” to Europe, AFP reports. “Shara said he is ready to block illegal immigration and fight drug smugglers… (These are) two key commitments for Italy,” he said. Tajani in the Lebanese capital Beirut, where he moved from Syria on Friday.
The head of Italian diplomacy also met with his departmental colleague Asad Hasan Šibán in Damascus. He told him that he would closely monitor the process of pacification and reconstruction of Syria. According to Tajani, Italy’s goal is to support a political process in Syria that will guarantee basic rights to all Syrians, including Christians.
After the heads of diplomacy of Germany and France – Annalene Baerbock and Jean-Noël Barrot – Tajani is the third minister of foreign affairs of the EU who arrived in Syria after the overthrow of the Assad regime. He arrived in Damascus after holding talks with his European ministry colleagues and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome on Thursday.
