Meloni: 'Flotilla is doing something dangerous and irresponsible. Ukraine, avoid escalation"

"This is gratuitous, dangerous, irresponsible. There is no need to risk one's own safety to sneak into a theatre of war to deliver aid to Gaza that the Italian government could have delivered in a few hours. I call everyone to responsibility, particularly Italian parliamentarians'. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this from New York on the Flotilla for Gaza.

On the Flotilla, Tajani 'is working on another mediation proposal, which is to deliver this aid to Cyprus, to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which will take responsibility for delivering it. It is a proposal on which I think there is consensus between the Cypriot government, the Israeli government, and obviously the Italian government. We are waiting for an answer from the Flotilla. And here I really appeal to everyone's responsibility, because you cannot risk people's safety to take initiatives that seem to be mainly done not to deliver aid, but to create problems for the government'.

"I am not stupid, what is happening in Italy is not to alleviate the suffering of the people of Gaza, but to attack the Italian government. I find it objectively irresponsible to use the suffering in Gaza to attack the government,' reports Meloni from New York. "I am astonished by the reaction of the opposition" to the position on the recognition of the State of Palestine on conditions, "I think it is a very serious position: we are willing to recognise Palestine but not to do a favour to Hamas".

"I think there is a problem of a deteriorating climate. I think there is also a problem of justificationism and silence with respect to what is happening. I think the accusations that are made in Parliament also contribute to this climate. Because it is obvious that if a parliamentarian tells you that you are an accomplice to genocide, what should the ordinary citizen tell you? Do you or do you not authorise the use of certain topics? So I call for responsibility'.

Russian provocations are "provocations" and "I think it is important to think cold-bloodedly, because an escalation only benefits Putin and Russia, which are objectively in trouble. I think we must do everything we can not to fall into these traps. Then it is obvious that when there is a military aircraft that may pose a threat, flying over its airspace, it is shot down: this is what the rules provide for. Not that this automatically means escalation', but 'I think we must do everything to avoid escalation'. Thus Giorgia Meloni adding that Moscow is 'escalating these provocations'.