ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said her government’s efforts to help Tunisia overcome its economic crisis benefit the people of both countries.
Speaking in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, she told legislators about her government’s efforts to help Tunisia receive as soon as possible a loan of nearly $1.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund.
The IMF requires Tunisia’s government to carry out a series of reforms before giving the loan. However, Tunisia is asking for a first tranche of funding to be released immediately by the IMF, while the rest of the loan can be paid in line with the progress of reforms. Rome has urged the IMF to approve an initial, unconditional bailout package.
Meloni recalled her visit to Tunis on June 11 with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in order to speed up the provision of EU financial aid to Tunisia.
“What we’re trying to do with Tunisia is to prevent a nation, which is our neighbor, from going into default. We’re trying to do this for the citizens of Tunisia and also for our citizens,” Meloni said.
She added that Italy promotes “a serious cooperation approach” toward Tunisia and other North African countries, “an equal approach to promote growth and development.”
Meloni described as “extremely positive” the fact that the situation in Tunisia will be covered during the EU Council meeting on June 29-30, and expressed her wish that Brussels will unlock an aid package “as soon as possible.”
She said: “Europe must keep its focus on Tunisia’s stability. This is a fundamental objective for the security of the entire Mediterranean area and, consequently, of Europe.”
Italian PM: Support for Tunisia benefits both peoples
https://arab.news/5ydxm
Italian PM: Support for Tunisia benefits both peoples
- Giorgia Meloni: ‘Europe must keep its focus on Tunisia’s stability’
- Rome trying to facilitate IMF loan of nearly $1.9bn to North African country
Iraq starts investigations into Daesh detainees moved from Syria
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s judiciary announced on Monday it has begun its investigations into more than 1,300 Daesh group detainees who were transferred from Syria as part of a US operation.
“Investigation proceedings have started with 1,387 members of the Daesh terrorist organization who were recently transferred from the Syrian territory,” the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, using the Arabic acronym for Daesh.
“Under the supervision of the head of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, several judges specializing in counterterrorism started the investigation.”
Those detainees are among 7,000 IS suspects, previously held by Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the US military said it would transfer to Iraq after Syrian government forces recaptured Kurdish-held territory.
They include Syrians, Iraqis and Europeans, among other nationalities, according to several Iraqi security sources.
In 2014, Daesh swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Backed by US-led forces, Iraq proclaimed the defeat of Daesh in the country in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately beat back the group in Syria two years later.
The SDF went on to jail thousands of suspected extremists and detain tens of thousands of their relatives in camps.
Last month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with Kurdish forces in Syria had largely expired, as Damascus pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF.
In Iraq, where many prisons are packed with Daesh suspects, courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences and life terms to people convicted of terrorism offenses, including many foreign fighters.
Iraq’s judiciary said its investigation procedures “will comply with national laws and international standards.”
