(Adnkronos) – Italy will work with the United Nations in war-ravaged Gaza “at all times and in all circumstances”, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said Tuesday in the Senate after telling lawmakers the country will be an observer on US president Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
“We intend to work with the UN at all times and in all circumstances. There will be no alternative Italian action to the UN’s,” Tajani stated.
Addressing the lower house of parliament earlier on Tuesday, Tajani said that not taking part in the Board of Peace for Gaza would contravene Italy’s Constitution, which repudiates war.
Italy’s premier Giorgia Meloni has delegated Tajani to attend the Board of Peace’s inaugural meeting in the US capital, Washington DC on Thursday.
Tajani also told MPs that the government deplores any move to annex the occupied West Bank after Israel’s cabinet on Sunday approved further measures to annex the Palestinian territory and make it easier for settlers to buy land there.
“The government has condemned any suggestion of Israeli annexation of the West Bank. These moves do not help peace builders and risk jeopardizing the two-state solution,” Tajani told MPs.
The West Bank is among the territories that Palestinians seek for a future independent state. Italy continues to back a ‘two-state solution’ to the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: an outcome opposed by Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu, who views any Palestinian state as a security threat.
Chaired by Trump, the Board of Peace will oversee a transitional Palestinian technocratic government in the Gaza Strip (the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza).
The panel will also work towards disarming ruling Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and deploying a peace mission to the coastal enclave – the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) – containing armed personnel from various countries, which will train a new Palestinian police force.
Although the board was proposed to oversee a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War and disarm Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, its charter suggests the mission could extend beyond the Gaza Strip to other conflict zones. Critics of the panel allege Trump is trying to supplant the UN.
