Gaza: Tajani from Riyadh reiterates the objectives of freeing hostages, helping civilians and the two-state solution

The Vice President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, traveled today to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to participate in a meeting focused on the future of the Gaza Strip. This is the first international meeting after the G7 in Capri, where the issue of the Middle East was at the center of the debate. With the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the United Kingdom Foreign Minister, David Cameron, Western ministers and the Foreign Ministers of Arab countries, Italy is working to convince the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas to “accept the Israel’s truce proposal to reach a solution to the Gaza crisis,” Tajani said, underlining: “Our goal is to free the hostages, help the civilian population and finally prepare the way for having two peoples and two states” .

In Riyadh, Minister Tajani will meet several international counterparts and those from the Middle Eastern region. According to Farnesina sources “the meetings aim to support and harmonize the efforts of the United States and the Arab countries on the front line to avoid a new phase of war in Gaza and to activate all the mechanisms for the distribution of aid and the rehabilitation of Gaza right now as soon as the Israeli authorities allow massive entry of convoys.” The meeting aims to strengthen coordination to cool tension between Israel and Iran and avoid further worsening of the crisis in Gaza. Tajani will share the results of the G7 meeting in Capri with the Arab and European ministers and will have various moments of discussion with his European colleagues, as well as with other colleagues in the region, including the ministers of Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Also present in Riyadh today is US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who will then continue with a new trip to the region to avoid the possibility of a new military escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

The meeting in the Saudi capitalFurthermore, it takes place a few days after the Foreign Affairs Council of last April 22 during which Tajani shared the results of the G7 meeting in Capri with the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan, and with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. Today, Minister Tajani will also present the latest assessments of the Roman coordination table of “Food for Gaza”, the initiative that the Italian government has activated with the United Nations Agriculture and Food Organization, the World Food Program and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. For Tajani “the aim is to push for an immediate ceasefire, for the release of all the Israeli hostages and to bring in massive aid for the civilian population of Gaza as soon as possible. The emergency is unsustainable and must be addressed immediately.” The various meetings that will be held in Riyadh will also be decisive in relaunching the political process that must now be built to advance a diplomatic solution in the name of the “two peoples, two states” formula.

The international meeting in Riyadh it takes place in a context of instability which, beyond Gaza, still risks involving other international actors. After the April 13 Iranian missile attack on Israel – defined by Tehran as a limited response compared to the attack on its consulate in Damascus to avoid an escalation –, the April 19 Israeli response exposed the vulnerability of Iranian strategic assets, including nuclear ones, and re-established a climate of deterrence. The Israeli action was also limited, a fact that allowed Tehran to downplay the incident and avoided a potential regional escalation. However, unanimous concern emerged from the Arab countries, accompanied by a call to the actors involved for moderation and de-escalation. In the meantime, the G7 Foreign Ministerial meeting took place in Capri, which gave strong impetus to the strengthening of sanctioning pressure on Iran, while in Europe work is underway to extend the provisions on the transfer of drones to Russia, as well as the production of missiles and their use to destabilize the region.

The negotiations on Gaza however, they remain at a standstill while the Israeli government seems intent on proceeding – in times yet to be established – with the ground operation in Rafah. On the other hand, the Jewish country has started an intense dialogue with Egypt for the preparation of safe areas, the purchase of several tens of thousands of tents and the transfer to Gaza of two brigades of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), equal at around 6 thousand units: all elements that seem to confirm that the preparatory phases of the actual military intervention in Rafah have already begun. Limited developments arrive on the humanitarian access front, although Israel claims to have favored a greater flow of aid into the Strip. However, critical issues remain relating to the distribution of aid in Gaza and the safety conditions of humanitarian workers. The confrontation between the IDF and the Lebanese Shiite militiamen Hezbollah also fits into this context: the Israeli military, in fact, is carrying out increasingly frequent and deep preventive actions in Lebanese territory.

The choice to hold the meeting in Riyadh confirms Saudi Arabia’s great activism in relation to the dossier, especially after Qatar is apparently re-evaluating its role in mediating the release of the hostages, following harsh criticism from the United States Congress for the alleged attempt to use the talks in Doha to obtain concessions from Israel. On the question of the “future of Gaza” there are currently decidedly distant positions: in Israel a short-term perspective guided by the contingent emergency prevails, despite the push from some sectors of civil society for an overall strategy. The activism of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), under the pressure of Riyadh, has highlighted two fundamental issues, which are difficult to deal with in an ongoing conflict: the full international recognition of Palestinian state; the management of security in Gaza, in which it still remains to be understood whether an international interposition force, led by Arabs, can somehow ensure a peaceful transition.

In relation to the recognition of the Palestinian state, after the Algerian resolution on admission to the UN as a full member country was rejected due to the United States’ veto, the issue will be scheduled in the General Assembly on a date to be defined. In this context, Riyadh also wants to bring together Western countries inclined to express a favorable vote on the issue (France, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Slovenia, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg and Andorra). On this front, Italy believes that the recognition of the State of Palestine must come after negotiations with Israel supported by the international community. What is certain is that within the European Union the positions are distant, so much so that some member states have hypothesized reaching a consensus of 27 on admission to the UN without first proceeding with the recognition of the Palestinian state entity. During the meeting last April 22, the Saudi minister Bin Farhan had made it clear to Tajani that Riyadh would first like to promote the admission of Palestine to the financial institutions linked to the UN, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to thus start a progressive path towards full recognition.

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