“Of course it was outside the rules of international law.” The government’s first explicit judgment on the operation launched by the US and Israel in Iran comes in a response from Guido Crosetto to the opposition’s cries of protest. A conflict that “started without the world’s knowledge, that we didn’t want and that we now have to manage”, clarifies the Defense Minister, whose communications to Parliament, in tandem with that of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani, are preceded early in the morning by a radio interview by Giorgia Meloni. “We are not at war and we do not want to go to war”, clarified the prime minister, who in turn will speak to the House and Senate next Wednesday. He will anticipate the communications already planned a week later, on the eve of the EU Council, extending them to the war in Iran.
Video Crosetto: ‘250 of our soldiers evacuated to Saudi Arabia from other countries’
The announcement comes on the sixth day of the new conflict in the Gulf, in the aftermath of the meeting between the Prime Minister and Sergio Mattarella, and after days of controversy from the opposition: they invoked her in the Chamber, instead of the ministers, and now, in particular Pd, M5s and Avs, they see the FdI leader’s move as instrumental. The dem’s suspicion is that Meloni, coming to the Chamber seven days earlier, “does not want debates in the week of the referendum”. The meeting of group leaders called to schedule the Prime Minister’s speech in the Chamber ends in dispute. Sparks that were also seen in the Chamber, both in Montecitorio and in Palazzo Madama, complete with “Trump’s Brothers” and “Italy must not be used” signs waved by Avs. To the opposition’s accusations, Tajani responds that he shouldn’t be ashamed of anything, “I’ve never been investigated, I’m a decent, honest person”, and the person who disrespected Parliament was “D’Alema when he sent Italian planes to bomb the Balkans”. The first sentence makes some Berlusconi supporters turn up their noses, the second attracts the reaction of Matteo Renzi: the minister “is appalling for his mediocrity”, says the former prime minister, who instead stings Crosetto about relations with the Services. “I have full confidence – the minister’s reply – in Mantovano”. The M5s leader Giuseppe Conte accuses Meloni of having “escaped” from Parliament, preferring “a monologue on the radio”. “Sanchez says ‘no to war’, Meloni says nothing”, Elly Schlein’s statement, according to which the government should oppose “immediately” the authorization of US bases “to support in any way this war which violates international law”. The executive is showing great caution on this issue. For now, there has been no American request to use the bases in Italy as a base for combat missions. And it won’t arrive, the government says, the bases in Italy “are too far from the theater of war”. “We stick to bilateral agreements, everyone is doing so”, the line indicated by Meloni, referring to the 1954 agreements, for which only “technical authorizations” are needed for “logistics, non-kinetic” operations, in practice “not bombing”. Faced with different requests, he adds, without prejudice to the government’s competence, “we will decide with Parliament”. Meanwhile, the Chambers, with the majority resolution (in which the USA and Israel are never mentioned), guarantee the government the ability to support “EU member states in defense” from Iranian attacks, and deploy and redeploy anti-missile systems in support of the Gulf countries. Meloni, who also receives the phone call from Emmanuel Macron, with whom he also coordinates to support the security of Cyprus, expresses concern about the risk of an escalation which would have “unforeseeable consequences”. And he reiterates that the origin of the chaos is Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine (he also has a phone call with Volodymyr Zelensky). “We are on the edge of the abyss”, Crosetto’s expression, worried that the situation “could allow Putin choices that he would never have made in normal conditions”, for example “tactical nuclear power” against Kiev. The Prime Minister condemns the “disordered reaction of the Iranians”, and guarantees her commitment to working on a diplomatic level “to understand if there are margins for a resumption of negotiations”. If the conflict were to stop, the government is convinced that it can play a role thanks to the traditional good relations of our intelligence with the Iranians. But first, Meloni clarifies, “Iran must stop attacking neighboring countries”. On the domestic front, adds the Prime Minister, “the guard is very high” on the risks of terrorism and speculation on energy prices, for which the Arera task force was activated, with the threat of “increasing taxes” on companies that were to add increases to their bills.
Video Tajani: ‘100,000 Italians directly or otherwise involved in the crisis in Iran’
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