"We will continue to campaign for the two peoples, two states, as the only choice for stability. This is not an easy task. Netanyahu and Hamas do not want to. Israeli President Herzog appeared to me to be more willing to establish a Palestinian state. With an interregnum monitored by the UN and led by an Arab country. Italy is prepared to send soldiers. This is the Italian plan that I will discuss on Wednesday and Thursday on my trip to Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine". This is what the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, Antonio Tajani, said in an interview with La Stampa after speaking with his Egyptian colleague, Sameh Hassan Shoukry, to whom he announced that "Italy is committed to launching a European mission in the Red Sea" and on the eve of the meeting with other European ministers in Brussels of the Foreign Minister of Israel and the PNA, as well as representatives of Jordan, Egypt, and Lebanon. "Israel is a democracy, and Netanyahu has been elected; it is not for us to decide who should lead the country at this time. Herzog, I repeat, appears to be a person of good will with a more pacific perspective, open to glimmers of hope," and "Israel must recognize the Palestinian state. The Palestinians must be given a dream. The PNA should be strengthened". Meanwhile, Italy is preparing to send another ship to the Red Sea: "My proposal and that of Minister Crosetto, with the support of France and Germany, and other states that will join, perhaps Norway, is to establish a strong military mission, enlarging the one already operating in the Strait of Hormuz to the Suez Canal," "I still don't know the number, four, five. We'll see." He also reiterates that "as long as there is war, we will not sell weapons to Israel." We have stopped everything since October 7," but there remains the prospect that Italian soldiers will be dispatched "only and only under the auspices of a UN mission. Our men are peacemakers."
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