Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Monday appealed to the opposition to rally behind a call for national unity with many Italians stranded in the Middle East after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran at the weekend and Tehran staged retaliatory attacks across the region.
"Our fellow citizens in the region are our absolute priority, and I want to reiterate my appeal to the political parties: unity, responsibility, and balance must prevail," Tajani said as he reported on the crisis to Senate and Lower House committees along with Defence Minister Guido Crosetto.
"The ongoing crisis has a direct impact on our national security, on that of the tens of thousands of Italians in the area, and on the stability of trade routes and global energy supplies, which are crucial to our economic fabric".
He said that around 70,000 Italians were currently in the region, with almost 80% of them settled there and 30,000 in Dubai and Abu Dhabi alone.
He said less than 500 Italian nationals were in Iran itself and almost all of them resided there.
