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Italy Pledges €400,000 for Covid-19 Response in Libya

Head of National Center for Disease Control- Libya, Badreddine al-Najjar during meeting with Deputy Ambassador to Libya Walter De Martino (National Center for Disease Control)
Head of National Center for Disease Control- Libya, Badreddine al-Najjar during meeting with Deputy Ambassador to Libya Walter De Martino (National Center for Disease Control)
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Italy Pledges €400,000 for Covid-19 Response in Libya

Head of National Center for Disease Control- Libya, Badreddine al-Najjar during meeting with Deputy Ambassador to Libya Walter De Martino (National Center for Disease Control)
Head of National Center for Disease Control- Libya, Badreddine al-Najjar during meeting with Deputy Ambassador to Libya Walter De Martino (National Center for Disease Control)

The Italian government pledged to provide Libya a financial grant to help the country combat the COVID-19 pandemic in the southern region.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the Italian Embassy in Tripoli Walter De Martino said his country allocated €400,000 to support programs to combat the coronavirus in the affected areas in Libya. This came during his visit to the National Center for Disease Control.

The official also vowed to provide an adequate shipment of medical masks as part of the aid provided by the Italian government.

Martino praised the humanitarian medical mission team at the National Center on their successful performance at the COVID-19 hospital in Rome, where they worked and trained with medics to contain the pandemic.

Badreddine al-Najjar, the head of Libya's center for disease control, discussed with De Martino the local epidemiological situation and the efforts made to contain the spread of the virus.

Najjar reported that Martino praised the center’s efforts in combating the coronavirus in cooperation with international bodies and organizations.

Meanwhile, Libya reported 801 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 34,014.

The National Center for Disease Control also announced 384 new recoveries and 13 more deaths, raising the total recoveries in Libya to 18,902. The death toll stands at 540.

Despite the campaigns organized by local and international organizations, especially in western cities, Tripoli recorded the highest number of infections with 471 cases recorded in the past twenty-four hours.

A source at the National Center told Asharq Al-Awsat that some infected persons continue to transmit the virus widely, given that they do not follow the precautionary measures recommended by the Center.

The National Center for Disease Control launched training courses for medical personnel, in cooperation with the Arab Experts, at the center’s headquarters in Gorje.

The two-days course addressed diagnosing and treating the coronavirus, as well as implementing the infection control program in medical facilities.

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Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

Türkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since opposition groups - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.

It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Türkiye and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Türkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defense capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

Named to the post by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.

Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.

This can "only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done," he said.

NATO member Türkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel's assault on Gaza.

But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.

Guler described the talks as "technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events" or direct conflict, as well as "a communication and coordination structure".

"Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization," he told Reuters.