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

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani will be heading to Syria to encourage the transition in the country following the ouster of President Bashar Assad by Islamist insurgents.

Europe may move faster. On January 3rd the French and German foreign ministers met Ahmad al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto ruler, in Damascus. Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said it was premature to lift sanctions. In private, though, German diplomats are circulating a proposal which would do just that.

The French and German foreign ministers have met Syria’s new leaders and called for an inclusive transition of power, in the first visit by European Union ministers to Syria since the Assad regime fell in December.

The French and German foreign ministers are the most senior Western officials to visit Syria since longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad was toppled by rebels.

Syrians marked Wednesday a month since the ouster of longtime dictator Assad in a lightning offensive by an anti-regime alliance. The alliance, led

German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock linked the receipt of financial assistance from the European Union by the new Syrian authorities with the observance of women's rights. The German edition of Der Tagesspiegel writes about this.

Annalena Baerbock and Jean-Noël Barrot hope to show a "new beginning" is possible between Europe and Syria.View on euronews

The European Union will closely watch the political process developing in Syria and stand by the country if it moves toward a peaceful and open future but it will not back Syria's Islamization, Germany's foreign minister said on Friday.

So far, Shar’a has talked about pluralism and his wish for inclusivity, but his hands-off diplomacy with Baerbock has raised eyebrows — if nothing else, for raising questions about how women are likely to be treated in post-Assad Syria.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed Thursday in talks in Rome with European counterparts on the need to encourage stability in Syria, officials said, as Turkey threatens Kurdish forces in the war-torn country.