Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that he had called for a moratorium on EU sanctions on Syria for six months or one year, but that a final decision could only come from the entire bloc.

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.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is travelling to Syria on Friday to encourage the transition in the country following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents

A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the new Syrian administration should be given an opportunity to address the presence of Kurdish militants in the country, and reiterated that the Turkish military would act if it did not.

For weeks, Iranian officials have downplayed the fall of their ally in Syria. But an important general has offered a remarkably candid view of the blow to Iran, and its military’s prospects.

We were defeated and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow, and it’s been very difficult,” Esbati noted.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani met Syria's new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus Friday, state media said, in the latest such visit from a European diplomat since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

The Italian minister spoke of cooperation between Syria and Italy in crucial sectors, but EU sanctions imposed over the last decade of conflict remain an obstacle to progress. View on euronews