Al-Ghanim meets Italy's Lower House chief Boldrini

ROME, Nov 27 (KUNA) -- National Assembly speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim met Italy's President of the Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) Speaker Laura Boldrini on Thursday.
In remarks to KUNA following the encounter, Al-Ghanim said the talks focused on forming a parliamentary friendship committee, pointing out the strength of current bilateral relations with Italy.
He noted that the discussions dealt with the matter of exempting Kuwaiti nationals from Europe's Schengen travel permit - as Italy is the nation tasked with Kuwait's bid due to its current status as European Union chair.
The Kuwaiti parliament chief also expressed appreciation of Italy's contributions at the two Kuwait-hosted concluded donors' conferences for Syrian refugees.
"We briefed the Italian side on the latest developments in the region, namely conflicts and the catastrophic circumstances Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan are living under, along with the topic of terrorism in the region and the need to combine efforts to tackle it," he said.
Furthermore, Al-Ghanim pledged the National Assembly's commitment to all forms of economic and commercial cooperation between both sides.
Addressing the Palestinian issue, he urged the Italian government to follow in the footsteps of Sweden in acknowledging Palestinian statehood and to continuously condemn Israel's non-stop attacks on the Palestinians which have left behind thousands of innocent casualties.
The international community's silence on the matter has allowed extremist terrorist groups to attract the membership of gullible youth, he suggested.
During the talks, Boldrini was also invited to visit Kuwait. (pickup previous) mn.sd