{"id":424720,"date":"2024-11-26T12:16:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T12:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=424720"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"G7-ministers-discuss-ceasefire-efforts-in-Mideast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/G7-ministers-discuss-ceasefire-efforts-in-Mideast\/","title":{"rendered":"G7 ministers discuss ceasefire efforts in Mideast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday he was &#8220;optimistic&#8221; for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, as Middle East tensions dominated a G7 meeting near Rome.<\/p>\n<p>The Group of Seven foreign ministers also discussed the International Criminal Court&#8217;s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas military chief.<\/p>\n<p>US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attended the talks in the towns of Fiuggi and Anagni with ministers from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Japan and host Italy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am optimistic about Lebanon,&#8221; Tajani told a press conference as international efforts for a ceasefire intensify &#8212; even if it was &#8220;more complicated than Gaza&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are strongly committed to strongly pushing Israel and Hamas to end this war in Palestine,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Tajani hinted however at difficulties in reaching &#8220;an unambiguous position on the International Criminal Court decision&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The ICC issued warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas&#8217; Mohammed Deif on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>They have been accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel&#8217;s war on Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the militant Palestinian group&#8217;s October 7, 2023 attack.<\/p>\n<p>Israel and its allies denounced the decision, but it was welcomed by Turkey and rights groups.<\/p>\n<p>Several countries have said they would comply with ICC warrants and arrest Netanyahu should he enter their territory. Others are still considering their response.<\/p>\n<p>The G7 ministers were &#8220;working to find an agreement&#8221; on the wording regarding the ICC decision in their final statement, Tajani said.<\/p>\n<p>While &#8220;we may not agree with how (Netanyahu&#8217;s) government&#8221; has acted in Gaza, &#8220;I believe that we must negotiate with Netanyahu to achieve peace in Lebanon and peace in Palestine&#8221;, he said.<\/p>\n<p>A second session Monday was to include ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the secretary general of the Arab League.<\/p>\n<p><h2>&#8211; Sanctions &#8211;<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p>The G7 talks come amid political uncertainty following Donald Trump&#8217;s US election win.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, discussions will turn to Ukraine in the presence of the war-torn country&#8217;s foreign minister, Andriy Sybiga.<\/p>\n<p>Officials will discuss ways to continue supporting Kyiv, prospects for peace and initiatives for future reconstruction, according to Italian officials.<\/p>\n<p>The same day in Brussels, ambassadors from NATO countries and Ukraine will hold talks over Russia&#8217;s firing of an experimental hypersonic intermediate-range missile.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unity is our strength at the moment, I&#8217;m referring above all to relations with the Russian Federation,&#8221; Tajani said as he started the meeting Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Britain&#8217;s Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced his country&#8217;s &#8220;biggest sanctions package&#8221; yet against Russia&#8217;s &#8220;shadow fleet&#8221;, used to circumvent export and oil embargoes to fund its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Tensions in the Asia-Pacific are also on the G7 agenda, and Italy invited foreign ministers from South Korea, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>The G7 ministers are also expected to discuss the crises in Haiti and Sudan, as well as political tensions in Venezuela.<\/p>\n<p>bur-ide\/ar\/tw<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/dfc9077a53dd443eab2c192ab77653b5.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Antony Blinken is attending the talks alongside ministers from fellow G7 nations Britain, Canada, Germany, France and Japan, hosted by Italy&#8217;s Antonio Tajani<\/p>\n<p>-Tiziana FABI<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday he was &#8220;optimistic&#8221; for a cessation of hostilities&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}