Mattarella to Abu Mazen: "PNA fundamental interlocutor". Today also the meeting with Meloni

The meeting takes place precisely in the hours in which the U.S.-proposed draft resolution based on the Trump plan, which is expected to be voted on in the coming days by the UN Security Council, is taking shape. According to Reuters, it envisages the green light for the Board of Peace as the transitional administration of the Strip and the deployment of 20,000 soldiers, authorised to "use all necessary measures", i.e. including the use of force, to carry out the mandate.

Meloni has already emphasised how, if requested, Italy would gladly join the Board and the capacity for dialogue shown with all parties - the PNA and Israel - and with Donald Trump could play in its favour, but it is too early to say. The now 90-year-old leader gave an interview to Avvenire in which he regretted the absence of dialogue with Israel: 'Direct political communication between us and the Israeli government is almost non-existent. The NPA's priorities? Along with the stabilisation of the ceasefire, it also indicates that of 'stopping all unilateral measures in the West Bank and Jerusalem, including settlements, settler terrorism and aggression against Islamic and Christian holy sites, as well as releasing all our withheld financial revenues'.

At the same time, the Prime Minister reiterates Italy's readiness to participate in the plan with the training and education of the Palestinian National Authority police force and the strengthening of their operational capabilities. "We are ready to contribute with our Carabinieri who have been present for years in Jericho, for the training of the Palestinian police, and in the EU mission for Rafah, the number of which we are ready to increase," she tells Abu Mazen, as she anticipated to the House on 22 October in the communications on the eve of the European Council.

More delicate to secure is the commitment to participate in the possible stabilisation force: despite the opening made in Parliament, the government is waiting to better understand what the mandate will be, also to politically verify the feasibility of sending Italian soldiers into the field. The UN resolution outline would contemplate the force's collaboration with "a new Palestinian police force trained and selected" to "demilitarise the Strip", destroy "military, terrorist and offensive infrastructure" and "prevent its reconstitution", as well as to permanently disarm "non-state armed groups" such as Hamas.

It is no mystery that the Prime Minister has always trusted in the PNA as a moderate alternative force to the terrorist extremism of Hamas, and that she places precisely the disempowerment of Hamas from any form of participation in the government of the Strip as a requirement for the Italian 'yes' to the recognition of Palestine. Again in the Chamber of Montecitorio on 22 October, Meloni said: 'Hamas must accept that it has no role in transitional governance and in the future Palestinian state, and must be disarmed, to prevent it from continuing to pose a threat to regional stability. The government is ready to act accordingly when these conditions materialise'.

Around this promise Meloni is trying to strengthen an already solid bond with Abu Mazen, which has been underpinned most recently by the telephone call in August when, in the midst of the escalation of the war, the prime minister had used clear words to testify the executive's solidarity against Israeli aggression: "The humanitarian situation in Gaza is unjustifiable and unacceptable". For Abu Mazen, the issue of recognition is central: yesterday, during the first visit to the Vatican by Pope Leo XIV, he recalled how Pope Francis had spontaneously proceeded to recognise Palestine in 2015, without being asked.

Meloni, for her part, claims the humanitarian operations carried out so far: the over 2,000 tonnes of flour and 200 tonnes of other food aid sent with Food for Gaza, the about 200 people evacuated from the Strip to be treated in Italy, the creation of the 'university corridors' with which 39 students benefiting from scholarships have been welcomed so far. The future effort will be put down in black and white in the paper that the executive is putting together in view of the reconstruction conference scheduled to take place in Cairo, Egypt, postponed from mid-November probably to early December: there will be action in all directions, first and foremost the health sector with the collaboration of the Red Cross, Civil Defence and military health.

To Abu Mazen, in short, the premier assures that Italy "is ready to do its part" for the future of peace and development in the Strip. Also in terms of restoring essential infrastructures in Gaza, involving leading companies in the construction and engineering sector. But Meloni is also very interested in listening to the requests of the Palestinian president, now in his nineties, as well as the recognition of the State: after all, they are a thermometer of the real needs of a territory that has been tormented for almost eighty years. And of the actual possibilities for peace.