A Roman day, the first in Europe since he took office, for the Palestinian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed Mustafawhich he meets for 45 minutes at Palazzo Chigi Giorgia Meloniand at the Farnesina our Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani. Obviously the Palestinian politician brings a message and hope to both greater determination of Italy in defend the rights of his people and the construction of a peace process.
TO Palazzo Chigiand it is not an act of formal courtesy, Meloni makes his interlocutor find it the Palestinian flag together with the Italian oneand at the end of the face-to-face meeting – which also follows the controversy over Italy’s failure to recognize the State of Palestine, unlike other EU countries – the Prime Minister reaffirms «Italian support for all the efforts underway for a sustainable ceasefire, the release of all hostages in the hands of Hamas and a qualitative leap in humanitarian assistance to the population of Gaza.”
«In this last regard, we are proud of the Italian commitment in favor of Palestinian civilian population – adds the prime minister -. From humanitarian aid to medical care, which we ensured with the Vulcano ship and the transport and the care of injured children in Italian hospitals. We are also committed to strengthening the initiative Food for Gaza. During the conversation, I reiterated the need to restart a political process leading to lasting peace based on two-state solution».
Mohammed Mustafa, who also holds the position of Minister of Emigrants of the Palestinian Authority, also meets Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who highlights: «Italy, thanks to its balanced positions, wants to play a bridging role and will work with ever greater intensity so that this phase of the military conflict in Gaza ends. This includes the visit to Rome by the Palestinian prime minister, which is the first in Europe since he took office.”
In both conversations, the humanitarian and financial aid which Italy has been ensuring since the first day of the crisis to the refugees and the Palestinian population. Tajani recalls that the government has arranged new funding for a total of 35 million euros, which are in addition to what has already been done in response to the crisis. Of these, 5 million will be allocated to the United Nations Agency (UNRWA) for the relief and employment of Palestinian refugees in the Near East.
«Following the work carried out by the independent Commission chaired by the former French Minister Colonna and the measures to protect the principle of neutrality – explains Tajani – Italy has decided to resume financing specific projects intended forassistance to Palestinian refugees, but only after rigorous controls that guarantee that not even a penny can risk ending up supporting terrorism.”
From the opposition, Nicola Fratoianni (Verdi) brands the visit as «a wasted opportunity by the government: the failure to recognize the State of Palestine, which the Italian Parliament had requested in the past, is an act of unprecedented fearfulness.” He also intervenes on the situation in Gaza Laura Boldrini of the Democratic Party, which underlines: «The order of the International Court of Justice, the highest legal body of the UN, is peremptory and binding. Israel stops operations in Rafah otherwise there is a risk of genocide.”
In the resumption of aid toUN agency UNRWA Italy is also considering 2 million for projects in the West Bank And 3 million for Palestinian refugees in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, countries that host important Palestinian communities in conditions of Palestinian vulnerability. After the first two aid packages already allocated for a total of 20 million, Rome has decided to prepare a third packageprecisely as part of the initiative Food for Gazalaunched by the Vice President of the Council to provide concrete help for food security and the health of Palestinian civilians. Yesterday Minister Tajani announced that the allocation of 20 million initially foreseen for the initiative Food for Gaza was increased to 30 million, bringing the total Italian response since 7 October to 55 million.
