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New Maritime Trade Route to Connect Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Spain

The Tunisian authorities have recently shown great interest in all types of maritime transport. (Diwan of Maritime and Commercial Ports)
The Tunisian authorities have recently shown great interest in all types of maritime transport. (Diwan of Maritime and Commercial Ports)
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New Maritime Trade Route to Connect Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Spain

The Tunisian authorities have recently shown great interest in all types of maritime transport. (Diwan of Maritime and Commercial Ports)
The Tunisian authorities have recently shown great interest in all types of maritime transport. (Diwan of Maritime and Commercial Ports)

Trade between Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, and Spain is set to receive a boost from a new maritime trade route that is slated to open in March.

The route will be dedicated specifically to container transportation and will link the port of Sfax with destinations in Morocco, Spain, and Libya.

Malek Aloui, the spokesperson for this new maritime venture, disclosed in an interview with TAP that final preparations on both administrative and logistical fronts are rapidly nearing completion.

Travel to Morocco will be accomplished in just four days, while voyages to Spain will take a mere six days. Departures from Sfax will occur twice a month, promising increased connectivity for businesses, he added.

Experts said that this new route would witness a remarkable success given the significant commercial ties that bring these countries together, and their relatively distant location from the commercial paralysis in the Red Sea.

The current maritime shipment turmoil and the Russian war crisis could also benefit the new route, the experts added.

The route avoids passing through Algeria which hints at the limited commercial ties between Tunisia and Libya on one hand and Algeria on the other.

The Tunisian Ministry of Transport stated that this route is part of a strategy to reinforce Tunisia as a maritime commercial hub in the Mediterranean Sea.

The trade volume between Tunisia and Libya reached $970 million in 2022 and between Morocco and Tunisia $215.7 million in 2021. Trade between Tunisia and Spain totaled 1.9 billion euros (exports and imports) in 2022, recording a 27 percent increase in imports and 36 percent in exports.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.