(Adnkronos) – Foreign minister Antonio Tajani on Monday underscored Italy’s unwavering commitment to a two-state solution to Israel’s long-running conflict with the Palestinians and to the reconstruction of war-wrecked Gaza.
“Our objective is that of two peoples and two states and we are, as we have always been, in favour of the Egyptian project for the reconstruction of Gaza,” Tajani said at a sports event in Rome organised by his centre-right Forza Italia party.
Egypt may host a conference this month on the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip after president Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said Arab leaders had endorsed the 53 billion dollar plan at a summit in April.
Palestinians would remain in Gaza under the Egyptian reconstruction plan and an “independent” Palestinian body would run the coastal enclave, with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas saying his Palestinian Authority would be prepared to play a role.
The United Nations and the European Union have welcomed Egypt’s plan for Gaza which came after US president Donald Trump envisaged re-developing the territory into a Middle East ‘Riviera’ and forcibly relocating some two million Palestinians elsewhere in the region – an idea that sparked international outrage.
