Russia brought the war back to Europe and together with the war “vetero-nationalistic impulses and neo-imperialist impulses” which can only be defeated by strengthening and reforming the United Nations. Sergio Mattarella spoke at the UN General Assembly and with a long speech he reviewed the main international crises explaining the government’s foreign policy line. He did it with a premise entirely dedicated to the madness of the nuclear threats that Vladimir Putin is flaunting to the world in these days.
Video Mattarella: ‘With nuclear threats the destinies of peoples are at risk’
“The two conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have also brought to the surface – he explained from the Glass Palace – sinister threats of resorting to nuclear weapons. The treaty framework for the control of nuclear arsenals is a common heritage of all states. Violating it, even with simple threats, means putting the destinies of peoples at risk. A responsibility – she underlined – that the international community cannot leave without consequences.” Full support for Ukraine, therefore, even if the search for a peaceful solution is one of Italy’s priority commitments: but “not any solution or, even less, a solution that rewards the aggressor and mortifies the attacked. It is not a question of giving life to any composition”. But there is much more in the speech of the head of state which found full harmony with the analyzes of the secretary general Antonio Guterres.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Mattarella could not have been clearer with a message to Israel and one to the Italian government: “military operations in Rafah must be avoided due to the dramatic consequences they could have on Palestinian civilians”; we need to resume funding for UNRWA, the agency that has provided basic assistance to Palestinian refugees for over 70 years. “It is then necessary to consider the essential function carried out by the United Nations Agency for the Relief and Employment of Palestinian Refugees in the Near East and consequently the importance of continuing to finance it”, he asked in his speech. For the government, the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Edmondo Cirielli, who accompanies the president to New York, explained that there will be a recovery but not like before the Hamas attack on 7 October: Italy has decided to “reopen the line of funding to UNRWA but on specific projects”, he assured, letting it be known that the projects will be evaluated “for their impact in favor of the population and for security, so that there is no longer any mixing with terrorist organisations”.
Video Gaza, Mattarella: ‘Avoid military operations in Rafah’
A few days ago the former French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, presented the conclusions of her report to the UN in order to analyze the “neutrality” of UNRWA, explaining that at the moment Israel had not yet provided evidence of Hamas infiltration in UNRWA. The president then confirmed Italy’s unwavering support for the organization at the United Nations, explaining several times how “multilateralism is the fundamental pillar of Italian foreign policy”. Inevitably equally strong is the support that the president brings to the UN for which support for the Security Council’s reform proposal remains firm: “the objective of inclusiveness is at the basis of the proposal of Italy and the countries brought together by the acronym “Uniting for Consensus” for the reform and better representativeness of the Security Council, aimed primarily at giving space to underrepresented regions, such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, to remedy a historical injustice for all evident. The UN institutions were modeled on the relationships that emerged from the Second World War, on war. It is time to model them on peace.”
Mattarella closed the speech with the words of a former general secretary, Kofi Annan: “global challenges have one element in common, that is, they do not respect borders and even the strongest state proves powerless against them”.
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