- Nineteen prisoners use cutlery to break out of cells at Winchester prison
- France wants progress in Ukraine before Russia returns to G7
- Italy president begins talks to seek way out of government crisis
- Italian PM expected to resign as political chaos deepens
- Russia says US cruise missile test ‘regrettable’
- Kremlin - No date set for Normandy talks on Ukraine despite Macron meeting
- Egypt court hands out 6 death sentences on terror charges
- Putin says Russian nuclear explosion poses no threat
- Russian panel eyes alleged foreign interference in protests
- Gran Canaria wildfire triggers evacuation of thousands of people
- PM Johnson calls on Germany and France to compromise on Brexit
- Sudan's ex-president Bashir arrives at corruption trial
TEHRAN, July 08 - Italy wants to prevent ships operating for "international missions" from bringing refugees rescued off Libya to Italian ports, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said Sunday.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - "On Thursday, I will put on the European table at Innsbruck a demand to close Italian ports to ships of international missions," Salvini said on his Twitter account, referring to a meeting with his EU counterparts in the Austrian town next week.
"Unfortunately, Italy's governments over the past five years signed accords allowing all boats to bring their migrants in Italy," he said.
Italy's new coalition government has set a goal of zero arrivals, and Salvini, who heads the far-right League party, has already banned boats chartered by charities to enter Italian ports.
The French rescue ship Aquarius and the German boat Lifeline were forced to divert to Spain and Malta respectively last month.
The Innsbruck meeting will be the first of EU justice and interior ministers under the new Austrian presidency of the EU.
Salvini did not name any of the several missions currently patrolling the Mediterranean, but typical among them is the Sophia, EU's anti-trafficking operation set up in 2015 to fight human trafficking.
Source: Press TV
Your Comment