ROME: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Thursday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should approve an initial, unconditional bailout package for Tunisia, with further payments dependent on reforms.
Tunisia reached a deal in principle in October with the IMF for nearly $2 billion to shore up its sinking economy but the bailout still needs approval by the IMF board, which is pressing for reforms, primarily on the economy.
“Our proposal is to start financing Tunisia through the Monetary Fund, and deliver, after a first tranche, a second tranche as the reforms proceed,” Tajani said after a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart, Nabil Ammar.
“But not utterly conditional on... the conclusion of the reform process. Start financing, encourage the reforms,” he told reporters.
Ammar “assured me the reforms are proceeding,” Tajani added.
Tunisia is heavily indebted and facing high inflation and unemployment.
In recent days, EU leaders including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have warned of the risks of an economic collapse which could drive more people to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Migrants from across Africa and Tunisia itself regularly use Tunisia’s coastline, less than 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the Italian island of Lampedusa, as a springboard for attempts to reach Europe.
“Sceptical or negative messages about Tunisia... do not help the Tunisian economy and fuel all the problems, including illegal migration,” Ammar said Thursday in joint statements to the press.
“Helping the Tunisian economy also means fighting migration,” he said.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has seized far-reaching powers since sacking the government in July 2021, later dissolving parliament and pushing through a constitution replacing the one approved in 2014 when Tunisia was at the forefront of the Arab Spring democratic revolutions.
Tunisia should get some IMF funds before reforms: Italy
https://arab.news/zw9k8
Tunisia should get some IMF funds before reforms: Italy
- Tunisia earlier reached deal with the IMF for nearly $2 billion to shore up its sinking economy
- Tunisia is heavily indebted and facing high inflation and unemployment
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s memoir recounts her journey after her son’s abduction by Hamas
- Random House announced Thursday that “When We See You Again” will be published April 26
- “I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness,” Goldberg-Polin said
NEW YORK: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who has become known worldwide for her advocacy on behalf of her son and others abducted by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, has a memoir coming out this spring.
Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Thursday that “When We See You Again” will be published April 26.
“I sat down to write my pain, and out poured loss, suffering, love, mourning, devotion, grief, adoration and fracturedness,” Goldberg-Polin, a Chicago-born educator who now lives in Jerusalem, said in a statement. “This book recounts the first steps of a million-mile odyssey that will take the rest of my life to walk on shattered feet.”
Goldberg-Polin also will narrate the audio edition of “When We See You Again.”
Her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was attending a southern Israel music festival when militants loaded him and other hostages onto the back of a pickup truck. Rachel Goldberg-Polin and her husband, Jon, traveled the world calling for the release of Hersh and others, meeting with President Joe Biden and Pope Francis, speaking at the United Nations and appearing at protest rallies. Each morning, she would write down on a piece of masking tape the number of days her son had been in captivity and stick it on her chest.
She continued her efforts after Israeli officials announced in September 2024 that the bodies of her son and five others had been found in an underground tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli forensics experts said they had been shot at close range. Tens of thousands crowded into a Jerusalem cemetery as Hersh was laid to rest.
According to Random House, Rachel Goldberg-Polin will tell her story in “raw, unflinching, deeply moving prose.”
“She describes grief from within the midst of suffering, giving voice to the broken as she pours her pain, love, and longing onto the page,” announcement reads in part. “It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love.”
