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Tunisian Foreign Minister Discusses Illegal Migration in Italy

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
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Tunisian Foreign Minister Discusses Illegal Migration in Italy

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)
Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar during a meeting with his Italian counterpart in Rome (AP)

Tunisian Foreign Minister Nabil Ammar has discussed the worsening illegal migration crisis with several Italian officials in Rome.

Thursday's visit comes after the Italian cabinet declared a state of emergency to deal with the increasing number of irregular migrants.

Data from the Italian Ministry of the Interior indicates that about 31,300 migrants have arrived since the beginning of 2023.

The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Taiani, said in a statement carried by Aki news agency that Rome would bring 4,000 trained Tunisian workers.

Taiani added that the goal is to "promote legal migration," adding that combating human traffickers and illegal migration is "essential for Tunisia and Italy.

He asserted that the two countries are serious about their cooperation, and the agreements still in force will be implemented.

The Tunisian Foreign Ministry announced the visit, which came at the invitation of Talani, saying it would be an occasion to discuss ways to address illegal migration according to a comprehensive approach that serves the economic interest of both countries.

It also promotes legal and circular migration and investments and helps create job opportunities for the youth.

The Tunisian coasts are witnessing a record influx of migrants, compared to previous years, towards the Italian shores in search of better opportunities.

The most significant proportion of migrants hails from sub-Saharan African countries, according to data from the Tunisian Naval Forces.

More than 28,000 migrants arrived in Italy this year, according to Italian authorities, compared to 6,900 in the same period last year.

Rome says that Tunis has become the first transit country in the region to its territory this year, ahead of Libya.

Tunisia's coastguard confirmed that it recovered 25 bodies from a shipwreck off Tunisia.

The coastguard stated that a wooden boat packed with about 110 migrants sank on Wednesday off the coast of Sfax, and it recovered the bodies of 14 migrants, including six women from African countries and one Tunisian who was the captain of the boat.

The national guard official, Houssem Eddin Jebabli, announced earlier that the bodies of ten migrants from sub-Saharan African countries had been recovered.

The Maritime Security Units in the Sousse region rescued 14 Tunisians, including five females and nine children. The Maritime Security Units in the Monastir region apprehended six Tunisians preparing for an illegal migration trip to the northern shore of the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 441 migrants drowned trying to cross the central Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023, the most fatalities in three months since 2017.

According to the organization's Missing Migrants Project, half of those deaths were linked to delays in state-led rescue efforts and, in one case, the absence of any rescue mission.

"Delays in State-led rescues on the Central Mediterranean route were a factor in at least six incidents this year, leading to the deaths of at least 127 people. The complete absence of response to a seventh case claimed the lives of at least 73 migrants," said the organization.

IOM Director General, António Vitorino, said the "persisting humanitarian crisis in the central Mediterranean is intolerable."

According to IOM, the 441 deaths documented in the year's first three months are likely an undercount of lives lost in the Central Mediterranean.

Over the Easter weekend, 3,000 migrants reached Italy, bringing the total number of arrivals this year to 31,192 people.

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Arab World

Haniyeh’s Assassination: How Did Israel Infiltrate Iran’s Stronghold?

This photo shows the Hamas chief's residence in Tehran where he was assassinated. (Social media)
This photo shows the Hamas chief's residence in Tehran where he was assassinated. (Social media)
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Haniyeh’s Assassination: How Did Israel Infiltrate Iran’s Stronghold?

This photo shows the Hamas chief's residence in Tehran where he was assassinated. (Social media)
This photo shows the Hamas chief's residence in Tehran where he was assassinated. (Social media)

Israel revealed on Sunday new details about the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31.

Days after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted Israel's responsibility for Haniyeh's killing, Israel’s Channel 12 said the assassination was carried out with a “precision bomb” placed inside Haniyeh's room and controlled remotely.

The report contradicted Iranian and Hamas reports that claimed Haniyeh was killed by a “short-range projectile.”

It said Israeli agents placed an improvised explosive device in Haniyeh’s room near his bed before the inauguration of new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 31.

The channel said a broken air conditioning unit nearly scuttled Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh, who appeared on the verge of changing rooms before staff at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ guesthouse in Tehran managed to fix the cooling system.

The Israeli decision to take out Haniyeh came shortly after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, when the movement's leader was placed somewhere at the top of a list compiled by senior intelligence officials. It was only a matter of when, Channel 12 said.

Tamir Heyman, former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, told the channel that for several years Haniyeh had been a well-known figure to the Israeli public, but was not considered a prime target. “The main targets of Israel were military figures, such as Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif,” he said.

But the dramatic shift that turned Haniyeh into a target were events that followed the October 7 attack.

In late January, Israel uncovered documents seized in a tunnel used by Sinwar, proving the deep military coordination between the two men.

Investigative journalist Ronen Bergman said Haniyeh played, in general, a key role in the Hamas military operations, and in particular, in the preparation for the October 7 attack.

How did Israel infiltrate the Iranian stronghold?

The report said the options for where to kill Haniyeh were Qatar, Türkiye, Russia and Iran — the four countries frequented by the Hamas leader.

It explained that Haniyeh could not be assassinated in Qatar as this would have harmed the hostage mediation efforts.

Israel also feared a furious reaction from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and similarly did not want to anger Russian President Vladimir Putin, leaving Iran as the most suitable option, the channel said.

The fact that Haniyeh stayed repeatedly in the same IRGC guesthouse in the luxurious northern Tehran neighborhood of Saadat Abad made the operation easier to plan.

However, he was guarded as a guest of honor by the IRGC’s top personal security team, requiring a deep level of infiltration in order to pull off the assassination.

Channel 12 said the Haniyeh assassination was at an even higher level than the pager operation that targeted Hezbollah members in Lebanon in September.

“We penetrated the inside and outside of the most guarded Iranian facility,” Iran expert Beni Sabti of the Institute for National Security Studies told the channel.

It reported that planning the operation took months, with unnamed sources describing the mission as “one of the most complex and sensitive operations.”

Israeli agents installed an improvised explosive device in Haniyeh’s room near his bed. The IED was slightly larger than Israel had planned.

Shortly before the planned detonation, the AC unit in Haniyeh’s room broke down, and the Hamas leader left his room to request assistance.

Citing a source familiar with its planning, Channel 12 said the Hamas leader was gone for so long that Israel feared that he was being moved to a different room, which would have scuttled the entire operation.

After some time, though, the AC unit was fixed and Haniyeh returned to his room.

At 1:30 am, there was a huge explosion in the compound.

“After about a minute, the medical team declares him dead, and then [now-Hamas leader] Khalil al-Hayya enters and sees his colleague lying dead and bleeding on the ground, and he himself falls to his knees and bursts into tears,” said Bergman. “It's a dramatic moment.”

Who assisted the Mossad?

The precision and success of the operation reportedly sowed panic in the Iranian leadership, and to this day, and the question of who assisted the Mossad in the operation remains.

According to both Bergman and Heyman, the operation was complex and therefore, could not have been carried out without significant help from within Iran or Hamas.

“This requires a whole network of execution capabilities,” emphasized Heyman. “It probably involves some people who betrayed their country or betrayed their mission and cooperated to allow this to happen.”

On Sunday, Hamas in a statement denied Israeli reports about the assassination of the former head of its political bureau.

It said joint investigation between the movement’s security apparatus and Iran’s security apparatuses showed that Haniyeh was killed by a guided missile weighing 7.5 kg that directly targeted his mobile phone.

“The claims made by the occupation regime are merely a desperate attempt to divert public opinion from this crime, which clearly violates Iran’s sovereignty,” Hamas said.