Removing Syria sanctions may be 'useful' - Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 18 - Premier Giorgia Meloni said Wednesday that lifting sanctions on Syria after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime may be a good idea while stressing that it might be too early to decide.
    "You will have read that the EU High Representative (for Foreign Affairs) Kaja Kallas is opening to the hypothesis of removing sanctions on Syria, another tool that can be used to get closer (to the new leadership)," Meloni said as she reported to the Senate before this week's EU summit.
    "But it is obvious that we are moving in a situation that is not very clear to anyone".
    On Tuesday Meloni on Tuesday told the Lower House that Italy is ready to dialogue with the new Syrian leadership, in agreement with European and international partners.
    "The fall of Assad's regime is good news, rightly celebrated by the Syrian population after over a decade of civil war," she said.
    "The rebel forces that have established themselves are heterogeneous, they have a different provenance and potentially contrasting interests.
    "There is obviously concern for the future of the nation.
    "Italy, the only G7 nation to have an open embassy in Damascus, is ready to dialogue with the new Syrian leadership, obviously in a context of shared evaluations and actions with European and international partners". (ANSA).