Italy FM Heads to Syria for Transition 01/10 06:09

   

   ROME (AP) -- Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said he will travel to 
Syria on Friday to encourage the country's transition following the ouster of 
President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents, and said Europe should review 
its sanctions on Damascus now that the political situation has changed.

   Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome on Thursday of foreign ministry 
officials from five countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the United 
States -- after speaking earlier by telephone with his counterparts from Turkey 
and Saudi Arabia.

   The aim, he said, is to coordinate the various post-Assad initiatives, with 
Italy prepared to make proposals on private investments in health care for the 
Syrian population.

   Going into the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and their 
European counterparts, Tajani said it was critical that all Syrians be 
recognized with equal rights. It was a reference to concerns about the rights 
of Christians and other minorities under Syria's new de facto authorities of 
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, an Islamic militant group that the U.S. and U.N. 
have long designated as a terrorist organization.

   "The first messages from Damascus have been positive. That's why I'm going 
there tomorrow, to encourage this new phase that will help stabilize the 
international situation," Tajani said.

   Speaking to reporters, he said the European Union should discuss possible 
changes to its sanctions on Syria. "It's an issue that should be discussed 
because Assad isn't there anymore, it's a new situation, and I think that the 
encouraging signals that are arriving should be further encouraged," he said.

   Syria has been under deeply isolating sanctions by the U.Ses, the European 
Union and others for years as a result of Assad's brutal response to what began 
as peaceful anti-government protests in 2011 and spiraled into civil war.

   HTS led a lightning insurgency that ousted Assad on Dec. 8 and ended his 
family's decades-long rule. From 2011 until Assad's downfall, Syria's uprising 
and civil war killed an estimated 500,000 people.

   The U.S. has gradually lifted some penalties since Assad departed Syria for 
protection in Russia. The Biden administration in December decided to drop a 
$10 million bounty it had offered for the capture of a Syrian rebel leader 
whose forces led the ouster of Assad last month.

   Syria's new leaders also have been urged to respect the rights of minorities 
and women. Many Syrian Christians, who made up 10% of the population before 
Syria's civil war, either fled the country or supported Assad out of fear of 
Islamist insurgents.