Italy has indicated that it is prepared to act as a bridge builder between Syria and the European Union after the fall of former ruler Bashar al-Assad.
“Italy is ready to play a role in advancing the reform process in Syria,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday after meeting with Syria’s de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus.
Tajani also met his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaybani and assured him that he would closely follow the “process of pacification and reconstruction of the country.”
The aim is to promote a political process that guarantees the fundamental rights of all Syrians and recognizes the role of Christians as citizens with full rights, he said.
Tajani is the third EU foreign minister to make an official visit to Syria’s new rulers following the coup in early December, after Germany’s Annalena Baerbock and France’s top diplomat Jean-Noël Barrot, who traveled there about a week ago .
