NEWS Italian Prime Minister to Pagine Ebraiche: “Middle East at the Center of Our Agenda”

By Adam Smulevich
 
Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni spoke about the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the traditional press conference at the end of the year.
 
“If we allow Islamic terrorism to appropriate the Palestinian cause, we run a serious danger. We cannot afford this danger. It is a topic that we want to bring back to the agenda,” he said, answering to Pagine Ebraiche.
 
“There is a road identified by the international community: With the talks at Camp David, it was a millimeter from the end. The road is the one of the Two State Solution. It’s not easy, but it remains the only one to follow,” Gentiloni also stressed.
 
According to the Prime Minister, Israeli settlements “are not helpful to the solution of ‘two states for two peoples’. However, he added, the idea that the diplomatic isolation “constitutes the right instrument of pressure on Israel” is “wrong”, since the solution “can only be achieved through negotiations.”
 
On the topic of internal security, he said: “There are no risk-free countries. We must be aware of that and share this knowledge honestly with the entire citizenry.”