(Adnkronos) – Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani on Thursday defended Israel’s right to exist and and to not come under attack from Iran-backed Lebananese militant group Hezbollah, but underlined that the Jewish state must not attack Lebanon.
“Israel has the right to exist and not to be attacked by Hezbollah and Iran, but it does not have the right to attack Lebanon,” Tajani told reporters on the sidelines of Rome’s private Luiss University’s Diplomatic and Security Forum.
“Everyone must take a steps toward peace. But it seems to me that right now Hezbollah is among those who don’t want peace and continue to attack,” said Tajani.
“In Lebanon, some progress can be made but this is very much down to Hezbollah,” he added.
“We want to strengthen Lebanon’s legitimate goverment which signed a (fragile) ceasefire with Israel (in mid-April), but Hezbollah has caused this to fail,” Tajani said.
Hezbollah has publicly rejected direct talks with Israel aimed at ending the conflict that broke out on 2 March amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
But Lebanon’s president, Joseph Aoun told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that he is resolved to persue a diplomatic solution, while Hezbollah as not presented the government with its own roadmap to end the crisis.
“There is no military solution. We have no choice but to negotiate to end this conflict, and neither do the Israelis,” Aoun underlined.
