(Adnkronos) – Italy already trains Palestinian police officers in the occupied West Bank and could also train a future Gaza Strip police force from neighbouring Egypt or Jordan, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
‘We have always been willing to play a leading role,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of a European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels.
“This includes in Gaza’s reconstruction,” Tajani added.
Tajani mulled Italy’s possible role in training Gaza police in a conversation on Wednesday with Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty about the conference Cairo is hosting next month on rebuilding the war-shattered Palestinian coastal enclave, he said.
“We also discussed Italy’s willingness to take part in training of the Palestinian police (in Gaza): we can do this in Egypt or in Jordan,” Tajani stated.
“Our (paramilitary) Carabinieri police force is already training police in the West Bank and could now train the Gaza police,” Tajani said.
“We are willing to do the training outside our national territory,” he concluded.
Italy is ready to boost its contribution to the EU’s EUPOL COPPS police and rule of law mission in the West Bank and its border assistance mission EUBAM Rafah, the foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s FAC meeting in Brussels.
