Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Nabil Ammar on Friday held a working session with Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani and the ministerial delegation accompanying him, including Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Labour and Social Policies Marina Elvira Calderone and a high-level technical mission. The latter are in Tunisia to conduct "political consultations" and forge a "bilateral partnership" in the labour and food safety fields, according to a Foreign Department press release. The working session offered the opportunity to discuss the "dangerous turn" taken by the situation in the occupied territories and to review "its impact on the region in the light of the Israeli atrocities committed against the unarmed Palestinian people." Nabil Ammar decried in this regard, the Israeli violations, which have reached an unprecedented level of brutality against the Palestinian people in Gaza, considering that these acts of barbarity amount to a "disgrace" for humanity as a whole. He also urged his Italian counterpart to intervene with the European Union and other supporters of Israeli aggression who make "great speeches about human rights" to put an end to it and stop targeting civilians and committing crimes of genocide and forced displacement in clear violation of the rules of international humanitarian law, universal values and human rights. The FM reminded the Italian official that the European Union and the entire international community have a "moral responsibility." It is up to them, he said, to take "concrete and tangible" measures to guarantee protection for the Palestinian people, to provide them with the urgent and immediate humanitarian aid they need and, ultimately, to achieve their legitimate rights in building an independent and sovereign State with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital. The Italian Foreign Minister underlined for his part, his country's rejection of "targeting civilians" and its support for the "two-state solution" and the "peaceful settlement of the Middle East conflict," saying that he had come to Tunisia "bearing a message of peace" and that his country "stands at an equal distance between all sides in service of peace in the region. In terms of bilateral cooperation, the working session provided an opportunity to emphasise the long-standing ties of friendship and cooperation binding Tunisia and Italy. It was also an opportunity to reaffirm the two countries' willingness to further scale up this cooperation in the investment, partnership, employment and vocational and diplomatic training fields in the mutual interest of both countries. The two sides discussed the issue of irregular migration and ways of dealing with it as part of a global approach aimed at encouraging legal migration, curbing irregular migration, combating human trafficking and giving young Tunisians access to job opportunities in Italy. At the end of the working session, the two ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the management of migratory flows, making available an annual quota of four thousand (4,000) non-seasonal residence permits for a period of three years to Tunisian workers in Italy.

Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse