Italy: Stand with Syrians, not with Assad

In March 2019, Italy’s then-Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi said his government was considering reopening Italy’s embassy in Damascus, something that would have normalised relations with the regime. It also would have made Italy the first European country to consider such a move, despite EU sanctions against the Syrian government.

We knew that we didn’t have much time to persuade Italy to change its mind. We quickly wrote a letter calling on the country to rethink its decision, which we hosted on a webpage for our supporters to sign and send. More than 5,000 people did so, responding to our email blast about the letter and promotion of it on social media.

The campaign was also picked up by media, particularly Italian outlets, and received coverage from the New Arab, Rai Radio3, and Publico. A couple of weeks after the campaign, we sent a letter to Italy asking for a meeting, which was organised with our New York office and one of Italy’s delegates to the UN. We were told that our voices had been listened to and that Italy would not be restoring political relations with the Syrian regime. Thanks to our campaigning, Italy knew that there was still international pressure to not normalise their relations with a regime that is still relentlessly attacking its own population. Their response to our campaign shows that this pressure works.