Israel has fallen into Hamas trap in Gaza war,
says Giorgia Meloni at G7
The Italian prime minister also stated the EU will not
directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed at the summit
Patrick
Wintour in Bari
Sat 15 Jun
2024 19.51 CEST
Israel is
falling into a trap laid by Hamas in its war in Gaza, Giorgia Meloni said at a
press conference closing the G7 summit in Bari that affirmed her role as a
leading figure in Europe. The Italian prime minister also stated that the EU
will not directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed by the G7
leaders.
And she
underlined her status by declaring that she will start talks on Monday about
the allocation of top jobs in the EU on the basis that Europe has to accept the
verdict of the people reflected in the results of last week’s European
parliament elections.
Meloni was
one of the few European incumbents to do well in the elections. She said: “If
we want to draw from the vote the indication that everything was fine it is a
distorted reading. The citizens want pragmatism., a less ideological approach.”
Meloni is
seen as vital to the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen, whose European
People’s Party came first, as Commission president, but insisted that Italy
will also be seeking senior Commission posts.
She
dismissed a row about the absence of the word abortion, which she fought to
excise despite French and American protests, from the final G7 communique. Last
year’s communique, issued under the Japanese presidency, explicitly referred to
the right to abortion.
She said
she “understood why some sought to light such fires”, a reference to the French
president Emmanuel Macron publicly raising his rift with Meloni, but she
insisted “the issue was constructed in a totally artificial manner, the
controversy did not exist in our discussions because there was no reason to
argue”.
The
communique referred to “universal access to adequate, affordable, and quality
health services for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health and rights for all”.
She also
insisted she had not sought to alter the commitment to the rights of LGBTQ+
people, saying: “We are not taking any steps backwards, and therefore the
expectations of some have been disappointed, because the story did not
correspond to the truth”.
Meloni, a
self-described “Christian mother” has in the past condemned “LGBT lobbies”, but
she said no rights had changed since she came to power in 2022.
In some
respects her remarks about Israel falling into a trap set by Hamas were the
most surprising. Although she stressed it was necessary to remember the attacks
on women and children on 7 October, “it seems that Israel has fallen into a
trap, a Hamas trap that had the aim of isolating it, and it seems to be
working. We are working on its security,” she added.
But she is
understood to believe that Israel should be willing to accept the peace plan
set out by President Biden that seeks to create a permanent ceasefire on the
basis of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
She also
gave fresh details about the $50bn (£39bn) loan to Ukraine to be funded out of
the interest accrued from the $230bn frozen Russian state assets, saying the
cash will be provided by the US, Canada, UK and probably Japan. “Currently,
European nations are not involved”, she said.
US
officials explained that some countries, notably the US and Canada, are going
to contribute to the loan; others will help with the repayment. Yet more
states, including the UK, will provide guarantees of repayment if the income
flow isn’t sufficient to service and repay the loan in full.
Meloni said
she saw little prospect of the assets being repaid to Russia for many years.
She said: “Since the assets were frozen due to the sanctions and the sanctions
are linked to the aggression towards Ukraine, the hypothesis of an unfreezing
only occurs in the case of a peace process – but I assume that in this process
of peace, the issue of who should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine would
also be negotiated.”
She
described Vladimir Putin’s peace offer delivered on Friday as a propaganda
initiative rather than a real peace proposal.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário