World
Italian PM Meloni ally fires back against criticism says policies the same but 'Europe has changed'
FIRST ON FOX – A close ally to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told Fox News Digital that criticism against her for abandoning policies on illegal migration and other issues is unfounded.
Italian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Edmondo Cirielli told Fox News Digital, “Giorgia Meloni hasn’t changed, Europe has changed.” Cirielli is the co-founder and national coordinator of Meloni’s party, the Fratelli D’Italia Party.
He said Italy is inspiring the European Union president to follow its strong conservative stances.
MELONI’S SHIFT FROM ANTI-GLOBALIST TO PRO-EUROPE, BIDEN BUDDY INFURIATES BASE: ‘WILL NOT VOTE FOR HER ANYMORE’
The leader of Fratelli d’Italia, Giorgia Meloni, in Rome on Sept. 22, 2022 for the closing of the election campaign for the general election in Italy on Sept. 25, 2022. (Getty Images)
He said that the Europe of Ursula von der Leyen is paying attention to Italy’s policies and “is listening to Italy’s reasons. Italy has always wanted nations to be stronger in Europe and is leading the rest of the European Union on this. Von der Leyen herself is accompanying Meloni in her action against illegal immigration. They have already intervened in Egypt and Tunisia. We will soon do it in Libya too.”
He added “among other things, there are European elections in a few months and the conservative party led by Giorgia Meloni, the European Conservative Party led by Giorgia Meloni, will give a new direction to this Europe. And the European Parliament itself, the European People’s Party itself, will have to take into account the problems that exist today and that Giorgia Meloni identified during her electoral campaign.”
Migrants from a migrant housing center on the Italian island of Lampedusa are guided by a security official on Sept. 14, 2023 as they prepare to board the ship “Galaxy”, bound for the Sicilian town of Porto Empedocle. The island struggled to cope with a surge in migrant boats from North Africa after numbers peaked at 7,000 people, equivalent to the entire local population. (Photo by ALESSANDRO SERRANO/AFP via Getty Images)
Birth rates in Italy have dropped to a record low in 2023 with a 15th consecutive annual decline. In 2023, Italy recorded 379,000 births, a 3.6% decline from 2022.
Cirielli said the problem does not only concern Italy, but concerns all of Western Europe. In its 2024 budget, Italy earmarked around 1 billion Euros (approximately $1.1 billion) for several measures aimed at addressing Italy’s demographic crisis.
“We are implementing a series of policies aimed at supporting births, birth rates and young couples, both on an economic and financial level, and this is obviously also a social phenomenon. It’s about changing your mindset and understanding that life is an opportunity and a joy for everyone,” the deputy foreign minister said.
In this image taken from a video released by the Italian Coast Guard on Thursday, April 11, 2024, a boat with migrants is approached by a rescue operation off the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean Sea. The Italian Coast Guard rescued 22 people and recovered nine bodies on Thursday, April 10, 2024, after a smugglers’ boat capsized in storm about 30 miles south of the island of Lampedusa. (Photo: Italian Coast Guard.)
The journey from North Africa to Italy has become one of the busiest migration routes with data showing migrant arrivals jumping 50% in 2023 from the previous year.
Cirielli accompanied Prime Minister Meloni last week on her fourth visit to Tunisia in a year when they signed new accords as part of Italy’s “Mattei Plan” for Africa.
Italian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Edmondo Cirielli, left, signs accords along with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Tunisian President Kais Saied, center right. (Photo: Gerardo Antelmo/ Office of the Vice Minister Edmondo Cirielli.) (Gerardo Antelmo/ Office of the Vice Minister Edmondo Cirielli)
“We are faced with an epochal fact that does not only concern Italy,” said Cirielli.
MORE THAN 63,000 MIGRANTS HAVE DIED OR GONE MISSING SINCE 2014, UN AGENCY REPORTS
The Mattei Plan seeks to tackle education and training, agriculture, health, water and energy development while aiming to make Italy an energy hub to transport natural gas supplies from Africa to the rest of Europe.
“We are intervening, first of all, with agreements with North African countries to prevent the departures from these coasts, but above all, we are trying to come to the places of origin of the migration. They are trying to help development and at the same time also provide legal channels of migration. Because the real problem is not migration itself and rather it is the criminal organizations that are behind the trafficking of migrants which is creating a new slave trade.”
He added, “This globalization is becoming very powerful on a financial level, exploiting this trafficking and in this way destabilizing Africa, becoming criminal organizations that launder this money from international trafficking, funneling it into drugs, armaments and also to often support the causes of terrorist organizations.”
Under Italy’s rotating stewardship, the G-7 foreign ministers met last week on the Italian resort island of Capri with calls for new sanctions against Iran over its attack against Israel.
“Italy, with the presidency of the G-7, has condemned Iran’s action and knows well that Iran is carrying out a destabilizing action in the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East, but it is equally true that we do not need an escalation… Israel’s bombing of a consular office, the diplomatic headquarters, was also a risky act. On the other hand, all of the G-7 noted that Iran’s response was a response, this time a balanced, moderate response compared to the episode itself.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Italian Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Edmondo Cirielli during the ceremony of Oath of the Undersecretaries at Palazzo Chigi. Rome (Italy), November 02nd, 2022 (Photo by Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
Cirielli added “It was understood that the Iranian government does not want an escalation and therefore everyone agrees, in the G-7, at the invitation following the lead of Biden and Giorgia Meloni and neighbors who are close and ready to support,Israel, especially Israel’s right to defend itself and Israel’s right to exist. But we must carry forward a de-escalation and prevent a regional war from erupting from this issue in Gaza.”
In December, Italy withdrew from China’s Belt and Road Initiative which intended to rebuild the Silk Road to connect China with Asia and Europe by expanding China’s infrastructure spending on roads and shipping routes.
Cirielli says the move to withdraw is not an interruption between the relationship of Italy and China but in the best interest of Italian trade.
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“It was a mistake by the Conte Government and the center-left governments that preceded us to make a political agreement because this seemed inconsistent with the alliance of the North Atlantic Treaty and also with the European Union…we terminated this agreement at the natural deadline and are establishing a new economic-social partnership, as like France and Germany have known. Therefore, there is not an interruption of relations, but a different modulation based on ancient, thousand-year-old relations almost only between the Italic peoples and the Chinese peoples, based absolutely on good dialogue, on profitable trade for both.”
The “Opposition had said that it is not wrong to have diplomatic relations or economic relations with China, it is wrong to have a political relationship that is underlying the agreement launched by China towards the world,” he concluded.
World
Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war
World
Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’
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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.
Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”
“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.
As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.
TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.
“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.
“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.
“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.
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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.
“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.
World
Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM
Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.
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As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.
EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.
Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.
“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”
On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.
“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.
“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”
Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”
“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.
When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”
On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.
Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.
“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET
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