Italy's premier Giorgia Meloni will be in Lebanon on Friday for talks with King Abdullah II, with Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati and parliament speaker Nabih Berri, according to the prime minister's office. Meloni is the first leader to visit the crisis-hit country since Israeli armed forces began an offensive in the south last month against Hezbollah.
Meloni had announced on Tuesday that she would travel to Lebanon, saying foreign Antonio Tajani will go to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories next week as Italy seeks to help international efforts to de-escalate the deepening Middle East crisis.
In an address to the Senate upper house of parliament ahead of an EU leaders summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, Meloni deplored Israel's recent attacks on the Unifil peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, which includes a 1,000-strong Italian contingent.
In her Senate address, Meloni called the IDF attacks, in which several peacekeepers have been injured, "totally unjustified and a clear violation of UN resolution 1701".
Resolution 1701 was adopted 2006 with the goal of keeping peace on the border between Lebanon and Israel after a 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in July that year.
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