Iran, Meloni calls emergency meeting: Italy's commitment to bring parties to negotiating table

(Adnkronos) – Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called an emergency meeting today, Sunday 22 June, on the US attack on Iran with the ministers involved, Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano and the intelligence leaders. Meloni “will be in contact with the main allies and leaders of the region in the coming hours. Italy will continue to work to bring the parties to the negotiating table”, Palazzo Chigi announced after the meeting.

A meeting of the Casa (Committee for Strategic Analysis of Anti-Terrorism) was also held at the Ministry of the Interior. Also at the Viminale, this afternoon at 4 pm the Cnosp (National Committee for Public Order and Security) chaired by Minister Matteo Piantedosi with the participation of the intelligence and police forces' top brass is convened.

There were also consultations between the government and the opposition. “There was a long telephone conversation between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein following the US attacks on Iran,” Nazareno sources said.

“Everything depends on what Iran will do.” Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated, reflecting on the ongoing conflict and the prospects of a de-escalation in a speech on the special edition of Tg1. “The day before yesterday I spoke at length with the Iranian Foreign Minister asking to speak directly with the United States to find an agreement,” he added, and “yesterday our ambassador in Tehran had gone to the Foreign Ministry to reiterate our requests to encourage a resumption of dialogue. We,” he then announced, “were ready to host a meeting between Americans and Iranians in Rome directly without intermediaries.”

“Let's see if after tonight's attack” the Iranians “will change their minds,” the minister continued. “We are working with all our strength to promote a de-escalation, a diplomatic solution to this matter. We hope that Iran will agree to sit down at a negotiating table after an action aimed at preventing the creation of the atomic bomb, which would represent, as the G7 also said, a danger for the entire Middle Eastern area. We hope they understand that this is the right time to sit down at a negotiating table and end a war that must not cause an escalation in the area.”

"We have been following it since yesterday evening, because some movements of American aircraft had given us reasonable certainty that an attack could be launched," said the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, on the special edition of Tg1. "It happened last night, it was clear that the Fordow nuclear site was Israel's main point of interest, because it is the center of the Iranian nuclear program. Israel did not have the capacity to significantly hit this site, under 90 meters of rock: this is why American B2 bombers intervened during the night, which have the highest underground penetration capacity in the world."

"We had already seen the movements of these bombers in the previous days," Crosetto explained, "so the news did not take us by surprise. This completely changes the scenario, it opens up a much bigger crisis, it also opens up a much stronger response from Iran that risks spreading to all American targets," he underlines. "We have already started the day before yesterday to take protective measures to secure the Italian contingents that are not involved and are not even a target in the Iranian response. We limited ourselves to moving those whose proximity to possible American targets could cause problems."

"The Italian Government must clearly state that it will not participate in military actions nor allow our territory to be used to provide support to a war that the international community must try to stop before it is too late, and must commit to de-escalation and to bring all the actors involved back to the negotiating table, also to defend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Italy repudiates war and wants peace". This is what the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, said.

“Trump said he would bring peace and end conflicts, and instead he drops bombs in Iran and sets the world alight, paving the way for a dangerous global escalation”. This is what the secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, said. “We make our own the words of the Secretary General of the United Nations Guterres against the use of force, for the respect of international law and for the immediate return to the negotiation path – the Democratic leader states – . We express grave concern for this attack by Trump, who is dragged into war by Netanyahu and acts without the involvement of Congress as instead required by the American Constitution”.

“With the US attack on Iran, the worst scenario we could imagine has become reality,” says Laura Boldrini, a member of the Democratic Party and President of the Permanent Committee of the Chamber on Human Rights in the World. “The president who was supposed to bring peace “in 48 hours” is dragging the entire world towards the abyss by joining the war wanted by Netanyahu against every rule of international law, as eminent jurists from all over the world have underlined,” Boldrini emphasizes. “When in 1945 the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing more than 200 thousand deaths and devastating consequences for the population and the territories, only Washington possessed the atomic device. Today there are 9 countries that possess nuclear bombs, including the US and Israel.”

“In the aftermath of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the entire world rightly condemned Putin for attacking another sovereign state. Iran is an equally sovereign state, even if we despise the regime that governs it,” the Democratic MP added. “Meloni should firmly condemn this decision by her friend and ally Trump to bomb Iran and distance herself from it: Italy must not in any way be dragged, even indirectly, into such a war of aggression. This is a race towards the self-destruction of humanity that must be stopped before it is too late,” she concluded.

"The attack in the United States on Iran marks a very dangerous escalation. I believe it is a serious and dangerous act because it clearly reopens the window on a conflict with incalculable outcomes with repercussions, tensions, insecurities not only in the Middle East, but also in Europe and the world". This was stated by the M5S leader, Giuseppe Conte, speaking on the Tg3 special on Iran.

“And what is striking about this initiative is that Trump at this point follows Netanyahu and adopts Netanyahu's doctrine, which explicitly states that peace must be pursued through force. It is a completely different position from the commitment he made to American voters, where he had assured that he would try with diplomatic and negotiating efforts to put an end to conflicts, crises and therefore seek peaceful solutions. Look, this is a completely different perspective, because in this case, therefore, the State through the use of force, the single State, we are no longer within the framework of international law, but rather international law is being trampled upon.

Netanyahu attacks Iran "at the moment of maximum weakness, at the moment in which the international community was taking note, I would say more and more widely, of a genocide that is taking place in Gaza. And now Trump also enters the game and look, all this distances the prospect of rebuilding a new world order. Because the world order must be built on international law, on justice, and finally on the law of the strongest".

“The US is going to war against Iran by conducting a reckless attack, without sharing with NATO allies, without considering the international repercussions, without any evaluation of the further instability that this will bring to the Middle East”. This is what the secretary of +Europa, Riccardo Magi, says. “For Salvini and Pakistan, Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize: he should have ended the war in Ukraine in 24 hours and he should have stopped the Middle Eastern conflict. Exactly the opposite is happening: Trump is proving to be a war president, even worse than George W. Bush. Tonight's attack completely changes the scenario: Meloni must report to parliament as soon as possible and explain to the country what Italy's attitude will be with this escalation of the conflict”.