A truce in the "dramatic"143-day-old Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and freedom of navigation in the key Red Sea trade route are vital, Italy's president Sergio Mattarella and his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides agreed on Monday.
"We talked about the Middle East and I expressed appreciation for the readiness of Cyprus to be a base for humanitarian initiatives towards the Gaza Strip," Mattarella said after talks in Nicosia with Christodoulides
"We agreed on the need for a ceasefire to be reached and that the situation be resolved without the danger of widening this dramatic conflict and stoking tensions in that region, where other extremlely grave problems risk exploding," said Mattarella.
Mattarella praised Cyprus' Amalthea Plan under which humanitarian aid would be collected and inspected in Cyprus before being loaded onto ships and transported along a safe sea corridor to Gaza.
"It (the Amalthea plan) is an initiative of great merit in terms of international relations," said Mattarella.
"Italy is ready to provide its support....in addition to the humanitarian initiatives it is already carrying out in the Gaza Strip," he said.
Cyprus and Italy are Mediterranean countries that "do not only care about stability and peace but also about freedom of trade and therefore freedom of navigation," Mattarella underlined.
Italy will lead the European Union's new 'Aspides' mission in the Red Sea to protect merchant ships from attacks staged since October by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, allegedly in solidarity with Palestinians in war-razed Gaza.
"What is happening in the Red Sea is a further effect of that Middle Eastern conflict which jeopardises a fundamental principle of the international community: freedom of navigation," he said
"These attacks may be copied elsewhere in the world, triggering an unpredictable chain of events," Mattarella warned.
