ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Our first concern is to protect Italian citizens. There are about 100 thousand people involved in this war situation, in different parts of the world: there are also Italian citizens blocked in the Maldives, in Sri Lanka, Thailand, India because they were all on flights passing through the Gulf countries.” So the vice-premier and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, at Sky Tg24.
“We are the only country that has a desk at every airport to assist our citizens. We have evacuated 10,000 out of 100,000, it is a good figure, but in fact there are about 90.000, if not more. We are making a maximum organizational effort, we also asked yesterday again to minister Crosetto the possibility of having military charter planes that can accompany the Italian citizens who want to leave: there will be three, I believe tomorrow and after tomorrow, and that will accompany the Italians from the Arab Emirates to Italy”, he explained.
“Many Italians are moving from the Emirates to Oman because Muscat airport is open. We have obtained authorization for an extraordinary flight of ITA, and to accompany first of all the most fragile, that is sick and disabled, in addition we are working to bring to Saudi Arabia the Italians who are in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait,” he added. “We had already reduced the staff to Tehran, but we had to secure all the Italians who wanted to leave. Yesterday evening towards 9 the three convoys that had departed from Tehran have crossed the border with Azerbaijan, the last to pass was our ambassador, of course, because the priority is to take away the Italians from the zones of risk. So as long as there are Italians at risk, embassies do not close,” the minister stressed.
“I believe it will be a war that will last weeks, 6-7 weeks at least, even Trump said it and even the Iranian armed forces have weapons to resist for a few days. Iran’s attack will not end so soon, so it will still be difficult days, during which we will try – because this is the priority – to help our citizens get out of the most risky areas”, said Tajani.
“No one asked us for anything, even for logistic use. We didn’t even have any requests for the use of the tracks. As regards any other type of use, it is obvious that there must be a parliamentary passage. We will do this: we will not do as D’Alema did, which at the time ordered our military aviation to bomb the Balkans without parliamentary passage”. Thus, the vice-premier and foreign minister on a request for the use of Italian bases in the context of the attack on Iran. “We wanted to go to Parliament to update, it was a political choice of the government to go to the Chamber and the Senate to say what was happening, including the request of some countries in the Gulf area asking for air defense instruments because they were in trouble in front of Iranian attacks. We gave our positive opinion after having informed Parliament, because there are thousands of our fellow citizens and 2,500 Italian military, so we must also contribute to their protection,” he added.
“We do not underestimate the risk of terrorism: Minister Piantedosi has raised the level of security compared to so many objectives that can be at risk. The same applies to immigration: war can cause escapes from countries. We hope that it will end as soon as possible and there are no major migration movements”
LA SITUAZIONE DEI CONNAZIONALI DEL GOFLO
– Cover photo IPA Agency; infographic in Farnesina –
(ITALPRESS).
