«In consideration of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the Defense Agreement with Israel». Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made this known on the sidelines of Vinitaly in Verona.
«It is not Giorgia Meloni’s foreign policy, it has been Italian foreign policy for 80 years, I don’t think that alliances between nations change based on who leads or governs the countries. When someone doesn’t agree, and I don’t agree often, they have to say so. To be clear, I don’t think that tomorrow our strategic allies should be different” said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a press point at Vinitaly in Verona, answering a question on the strategic alliance with the USA.
«I don’t think we should look to another part of the world. However complex and difficult it may be, my horizon, our horizon, remains the West – he added -. Our historical geopolitical position, as President Mattarella also reiterated in his end-of-year speech, is European and Western: I stick to that, which I fully agree with.”
“When there are things we don’t agree with, we act accordingly,” he continued, announcing the suspension of the “automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel”
It was Defense Minister Guido Crosetto who wrote the letter suspending the Italy-Israel memorandum to his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz. The letter on the decision to suspend the Italy-Israel memorandum, sent to the Israeli government, is the result of a decision taken jointly between Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Deputy Prime Ministers Antonio Tajani and Matteo Salvini and the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto. Specifically, the letter was sent to the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz. The memorandum, which establishes a kind of framework for defense cooperation regarding the exchange of military materials and technological research within the armed forces, previously provided for renewal every five years and entered into force on 13 April 2016.
Israeli media sources: ‘Suspension of the memorandum has no practical repercussions’
“This is not a security agreement, but a memorandum of understanding with no real content, and the decision has no practical significance.” Ynet reports this, citing an Israeli source regarding Prime Minister Meloni’s announcement on the suspension of the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel.
Conte, government guilty of delay
«The suspension of the Italy-Israel military agreement announced a short while ago by the Government comes with a serious and culpable delay. After over 70 thousand Palestinians killed. But it’s definitely good news.” The president of the M5s, Giuseppe Conte, wrote it on social media. «Voting and participation count like rocks. Where 2 and a half years of genocide and illegal wars were not enough, your vote arrived, the vote of 15 million people who said no to the Government’s policies”, explains Conte. «After the defeat taken by the voters, the Meloni Government, increasingly in difficulty, is forced to backtrack from the obtuse NO with which it had blocked our requests to interrupt those agreements with Israel. We must continue to press them: when will the sanctions be?
Avs, urgent information in the Chamber
«We ask for urgent information from Minister Crosetto and President Meloni» on the memorandum «between Italy and Israel. Was it renewed and then suspended? Not renewed until those crimes end? Come to the Chamber and explain.” AVS MP Marco Grimaldi said this in the Chamber. «Meloni announced the suspension of the memorandum on defense, it’s about time! We are satisfied, it is a first step that reminds us that things can be changed by changing them. This is the first victory of the Gaza generation.”