Crosetto: “More aid ready for Kiev. Iran-Israel front? Never opened”
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto was a guest this morning on “Il Caffè della Domenica” on Radio 24. Many topics addressed, starting with Nato: “What is being highlighted is something that I said a year ago: there is a problem with Western production capacity: It is a third of the Russian one and it is nothing new. My colleagues and I, in particular the French one, we are very disappointed by the reaction capacity shown by the Western defense industry. They have maintained the pace of peacetime and only recently increased it” declared the minister in response to the question whether Italy is able to satisfy the request of the Ukraine of new anti-aircraft systems. “We, as NATO, always notice things a year later, this thing strikes me every time. At NATO, if one raises problems and thinks with his own head, he normally doesn’t get answers.”
With regards to conflict in UkraineHowever, Crosetto declared: “NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg is right when he says that investment in Ukraine is not charity, it is an investment in our security”. of self-defense of each of our nations”. “I take it for granted that there will be further aid to Ukraine from the Italian government, I don’t know what it will be yet, we have yet to define what we will be able to give but it is clear that there will be”. “There is a decree which according to practice must be prepared by the Minister of Defense and signed by the Minister of Economy and the Prime Minister which is then illustrated to Copasir”.
Il Defense Minister then returned to talk about the Suez Canal: “While in Italy and the Mediterranean we are suffering heavily from the partial closure of Suez due to the Houthi attacks, the countries in Northern Europe are benefiting because once the ships have circumnavigated Africa they do not enter the Mediterranean but go north”. “Not all of Europe looks negatively at what is happening in the Suez Canal, so talking about a united Europe and a European army is becoming increasingly complex,” he added.
On the Iran’s involvement in the war in the Middle East, and in particular on the attack on Israel, the minister reiterated: “With cautious optimism we can say that the Israel-Iran front has not opened, the latest events seem to have exhausted this clash which was never direct.” There has never been a direct clash between the two countries, Israel could not afford to open a new front and Iran only wanted to respond to the attack suffered in Syria,” he explained.
“There is a willingness to send Italian troops if we wanted to create a Palestinian state with forces from other countries and our role would be important”. “We have the advantage, given our experience not only in Lebanon but also with the Palestinian people where there are carabinieri, of being respected and considered third parties, above the parties” concluded the minister.