Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
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Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Italy's foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country's transition after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.

Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe.

He said the fall of Assad's government, as well as the Lebanon parliament's vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.

He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

“The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants but a sea of commerce a sea of development,” he said.

Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.

On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.

“The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.



Israeli Troops Expand 'Security Zone' in Northern Gaza

A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory  on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
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Israeli Troops Expand 'Security Zone' in Northern Gaza

A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory  on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
A picture taken from the Israeli side of the border with the Gaza Strip shows a smoke plume rising above destroyed buildings in the southern part of the Palestinian territory on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Israeli troops moved into an area of northern Gaza to expand what they call a security zone around the edge of the enclave, the military said on Friday, days after the government announced plans to seize large areas with an operation in the south.

Soldiers carrying out the operation in Shejaia, a suburb east of Gaza City in the north, were letting civilians out via organized routes, the military said in a statement.

Israel issued evacuation warnings in the area on Thursday, and hundreds of residents streamed out, some carrying their belongings as they walked, others on donkey carts and bikes or in vans, reported Reuters.

Gaza health authorities said Israeli forces killed at least 27 people, including women and children, in an airstrike on a school building in Gaza City where displaced families were sheltering.

The military said the Dar Al-Arqam school building in Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City had been used a command and control center by Hamas militants and accused the fighters of deliberately using civilian infrastructure as bases. Hamas denies that it operates among civilians.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been fleeing their homes in recent days in one of the biggest mass exoduses of the war, as Israeli forces have moved to expand the territory under their control.

On the southern edge of Gaza, Israeli troops have been consolidating around the ruins of the city of Rafah.

Israel has not fully explained its long-term aim for the areas it is now seizing as a security zone. Gaza residents say they believe the aim is to permanently depopulate swathes of land, including some of Gaza's last farmland and water infrastructure.

The military said it had killed numerous militants and dismantled infrastructure, including what it said was a Hamas command and control center.

Palestinians say Israel's ultimate aim is to displace Gaza's population permanently, in line with a plan announced by US President Donald Trump to turn the enclave into a waterfront resort under US control. Israel says it would encourage Palestinians who wish to leave voluntarily.

Israeli troops resumed their operation in Gaza on March 18, following a two-month truce. Ministers have said the operation will continue until 59 hostages still held in Gaza are returned. Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that brings a permanent end to the war.

The war began when Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel has reduced much of Gaza to ruins and killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health authorities.