The president of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, has decided to address the Lebanese issue. On Friday, October 18, she will be the first foreign leader to visit Beirut since the September 30 incursion of Israeli forces into southern Lebanon and the intensification of fighting with Hezbollah. Ahead of Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani’s planned visit to Tel Aviv and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Monday, his trip comes mainly in the context of high tensions over the influence of the Interim Force. of the United Nations in Lebanon. (UNIFIL).
The Italian soldiers, who form one of the main contingents of the UN mission with about 1,200 men, have not been spared attacks and intimidation from the Israeli army, which operates near the blue helmet bases. Even an Italian position was taken by Israeli soldiers who fired inside, as the compound had previously been damaged by tanks. October 11, in a daily interview Corriere della SeraHowever, Tajani claimed to have obtained assurances from Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz that the Italian soldiers would not be in danger.
On Tuesday, in the Senate, Mme Meloni described the Israeli attitude as“unjustifiable”forty-eight hours after speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a tense conversation. Since the first clashes with the army of the Jewish State, the Italian Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome on October 10.
“Unanimous concern”
Crosetto also chaired, on Wednesday, October 16, together with the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, a video conference that brought together the Defense Ministers of the sixteen Member States of the European Union participating in UNIFIL. The latter formulated, according to the Italian press release, their “unanimous concern”condemning the Israeli attacks, promising to maintain its presence in Lebanon and “Exert maximum political and diplomatic pressure on Israel to avoid further incidents.”
The relative increase in tensions between Italy and Israel in a context marked by European concern about the turn that the conflict is taking in southern Lebanon occurs although the executive dominated by the extreme right of Giorgia Meloni has not missed any opportunity, from October 7, 2023, to show their support for the Jewish State. While ritually invoking the “two-state” solution and calling, in vain, for a ceasefire in Gaza.
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