Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, announced a tour of the Middle East in the coming days, including Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
During a press conference devoted to the priorities of the Italian presidency of the G7, the head of Italian diplomacy spoke in these terms: “I will lead a mission in the next few days to Lebanon, Israel and Palestine to carry another message of peace and dialogue.”
“We support the solution of two states and two peoples,” he said, quoted by the Italian press agency, AKI.
Tajani also expressed concern about the drop in maritime traffic in the Red Sea, due to Houthi attacks, against the backdrop of the situation in Gaza.
Transit traffic through the Suez Canal fell from 400 ships/day to 250, he said.
The Italian official was optimistic about the possibility of reaching an agreement in Brussels, during the Foreign Affairs Council, on the subject of a European Union military mission in the Red Sea for the protection of commercial navigation .
A political agreement is expected next Monday on this subject, he said, specifying that it will not be “an offensive mission but a defensive mission, aimed at guaranteeing the security of maritime traffic”.
He echoed a Franco-German proposal for a mission extending from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, with the participation of other non-European countries.
This article is originally published on news.gnet.tn
