Last week Italy’s foreign minister said his government is considering reopening its embassy in Damascus.

Unless we stop it, Italy will become the first European country to normalise relations with the Assad regime, despite it being under EU sanctions for its well-documented war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Enzo Moavero Milanesi, Italy’s foreign minister, thinks his comment will fly under the radar because the world’s attention is shifting away from Syria -- but if we act now we can change that. Let’s flood the Foreign Ministry with messages and force them to publicly pledge that they will not re-open the embassy and legitimise Assad's crimes.

This move is a betrayal of the hundreds of thousands of victims and survivors of Assad’s brutality who are seeking justice. It is in total disregard of current EU policies. It’s a signal to tyrants everywhere that they can break every rule of international law and not face any consequences.

Let’s show the decision-makers at the Italian Foreign Ministry that until there’s real peace in Syria -- one that is based on justice and political legitimacy -- we will not stand by while they shake hands with a mass murderer.

When Italy was blocking a ban on fuel used by regime helicopters to drop barrel bombs in 2014, thousands of us sent messages and together we reversed Italy’s position. Let’s do it again.