Italy strongly condemns Iran's missile and drone attack against Israel last weekend but fears any reprisal by the Jewish state would destabilise the volatile situation in the Middle East, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday.
"While condemning once again, with the utmost firmness, the recent attack launched by Iran and against Israel, I underlined Italy's concern at the risk of a further widening of the conflict," a foreign ministry statement cited Tajani as saying after talks with UK counterpart David Cameron.
During Tajani and Cameron's talks on the sidelines of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting on Capri, the pair focused on the risk of a further escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and on the Russia-Ukraine war, the statement noted.
Tajani "recalled the importance of moderation and dialogue at the present time where "any form of retaliation would undermine already fragile and delicate equilibriums," said the statement.
A truce in the more-than-six-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is urgently needed to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches the bombarded and blockaded Palestinian enclave, Tajani told Cameron, according to the statement.
"There can be no solution to the (Israel-Hamas) conflict without the full involvement of all regional actors and acceptance of the principle of two peoples and two states," Tajani was cited as saying.
Tajani delivered a similar message to his French counterpart Stephane Sejourne, to whom he also recalled the 'Food for Gaza' initiative which Italy unveiled in March with the Rome-based UN agencies World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Red Cross and Red Crescent.
