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 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.

Italy should lead international efforts to lift sanctions on Syria after the Assad regime fell to Islamist-led rebels a month ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Premier Giorgia Meloni in a phonecall Thursday,

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.

For the first time, Iran publicly admitted its defeat in Syria following the collapse of Bashar Assad's regime. Brig. Gen. Behrouz Esbati called the loss a "big blow" and said the defeat had been difficult for the Islamic Republic.

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