ALGERIA: Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi meets Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci to discuss coordination between the two nations in securing the release of two Italians taken hostage

Record ID: 574070

  • Title: ALGERIA: Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi meets Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci to discuss coordination between the two nations in securing the release of two Italians taken hostage
  • Date: 16th March 2012
  • Summary: ALGIERS, ALGERIA (MARCH 15, 2012) (REUTERS) (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) ALGERIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS MOURAD MEDELCI AND ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER GIULIO TERZI ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE ROOM. MEDELCI AND TERZI WALKING TO PODIUMS VARIOUS OF MEDELCI AND TERZI STANDING AT PODIUMS (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALGERIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOURAD MEDELCI SAYING: "What is clear is that Mr. Terzi and myself are convinced that the situation is primarily in the hands of the Syrians and that the Arab League in its mediation mission has never lost sight of the necessity that it should be the Syrians and only them who are to find the solution to their problem." CAMERAMEN FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (French) ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER GIULIO TERZI SAYING: "And also to see the Syrian crisis in these humanitarian and political dimensions as a crisis the solution to which depends primarily on the Syrian people but in which the international community has to be accepted in the contribution it can make to help Syrians and regarding the cessation of violence and an exit from the current situation on the political level, which is a very big concern of my government." JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION DURING NEWS CONFERENCE MEDELCI AND TERZI STANDING AT PODIUMS MEMBERS OF MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (French) ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER GIULIO TERZI SAYING: "At the moment we have the case of two Italians taken hostage in south Algeria and I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Medelci about this, underlining the necessity to cooperate in doing all possible to assure the security of these two persons, whose fate is so closely watched with so much concern by Italian security services, the government and the Italian people." PHOTOGRAPHER TERZI SPEAKING AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (French) ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER GIULIO TERZI SAYING: "Italy is firmly opposed to the payment of ransom money which directly finances organised crime groups." MEDELCI AND TERZI SHAKING HANDS
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria, Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA4UNH44QJT6SOGABC10CZTUBJZ
  • Story Text: Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi and Algeria's Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci agreed during talks in Algiers on Thursday (March 15) that Syria's future lies in the hands of its people rather than the international community.
    "What is clear is that Mr. Terzi and myself are convinced that the situation is primarily in the hands of the Syrians and that the Arab League in its mediation mission has never lost sight of the necessity that it should be the Syrians and only them who are to find the solution to their problem," Medelci said at a joint news conference with Terzi after their talks.
    "And also to see the Syrian crisis in these humanitarian and political dimensions as a crisis the solution to which depends primarily on the Syrian people but in which the international community has to be accepted in the contribution it can make to help Syrians and regarding the cessation of violence and an exit from the current situation on the political level, which is a very big concern of my government," Terzi said.
    Terzi said he had impressed upon his Algeria counterpart the need for cooperation between Italy and Algeria in moves to obtain the release of two Italian hostages held in Algeria.
    "At the moment we have the case of two Italians taken hostage in south Algeria and I had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Medelci about this, underlining the necessity to cooperate in doing all possible to assure the security of these two persons, whose fate is so closely watched with so much concern by Italian security services, the government and the Italian people," Terzi said.
    Terzi said Italy did not favour paying ransom money for the release of hostages.
    "Italy is firmly opposed to the payment of ransom money which directly finances organised crime groups," he said during the news conference.
    Maria Sandra Mariani, an Italian woman kidnapped in Algeria's Sahara Desert in early February said she was being held by al Qaeda's north African wing, according to an audio recording aired by Al Arabiya television. Al Arabiya television said it had obtained an audio message from the woman after being contacted by telephone by a spokesman for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who claimed the abduction and said she was alive.
    AQIM emerged out of a long conflict between security forces and Islamist militants in northern Algeria.
    Italian national Rossella Urru, from the Rome-based Comitato Italiano Sviluppo dei Popoli (Italian Committee for the Development of Peoples) was kidnapped, along with two Spanish nationals from a Sahrawi refugee camp in western Algeria in October 2011.
    The three aid workers were abducted from a refugee camp near Tindouf by kidnappers suspected to have crossed from Mali.
    Tindouf is the main base of the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975. The Polisario Front is backed by Algeria, where many Sahrawis live in refugee camps.
    No group has so far claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but authorities say they suspect an offshoot of the Islamic militants of al Qaeda.
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