MALTA-ITALY TENSION REACHES NEW HEIGHTS
Unconfirmed reports of a meeting between Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Opposition leader Joseph Muscat reached this newsroom yesterday, as high tension is building up between Malta and Italy on immigration. The two leaders discussed the situation on the latest incident in which Italian army boats warded off a Maltese patrol boat with 66 migrants from entering Lampedusa.
Tension is at its highest level ever since the 1980 Saipem incident, when a Maltese-commissioned Italian oil rig was stopped by Libyan gunboats.On Friday afternoon, Malta sent a note verbale to Italy, urging it to stop reneging on its international obligations for refusing to take in the migrants. A meeting also took place between Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and the Italian Ambassador to Malta, Paolo Andrea Trabalza.
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