ROME: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday that she and two of her ministers had been reported to the International Criminal Court for alleged complicity in genocide in connection with Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Speaking in an interview with state television broadcaster RAI, Meloni said Defense Minister Guido Crosetto and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had been denounced, and “I think” also Roberto Cingolani, the head of defense group Leonardo.
“I don’t believe there is another case like this in the world or in history,” Meloni said.
She did not elaborate on who had brought the case against her and her ministers.
Italy has seen a string of demonstrations over the last week, bringing hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets to protest against the mass killings in Gaza, with many protesters also taking aim at Meloni.
Her right-wing government, generally a staunch supporter of Israel, has distanced itself recently from what it calls its “disproportionate” offensive in Gaza, but has not severed any commercial or diplomatic links, or recognized the state of Palestine.
The Israeli assault on Gaza began after gunmen from the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages according to Israeli tallies, in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s response has killed more than 67,000 people, Gaza health officials say.
Israel denies accusations of genocide.
Meloni said she was “amazed” by the accusation of complicity in genocide because “anyone who knows the situation is aware that Italy has not authorized new, let’s say, arms supply to Israel after October 7.”
In response to her remarks, a Leonardo spokesperson said Cingolani had already expressed the company’s position in an interview with daily Corriere della Sera last month when he said the suggestion that it was complicit in genocide was “a very serious frame-up.”
In other remarks, Meloni said she believed that US President Donald Trump had come to the conclusion that Russia was not interested in a peace deal with Ukraine.
“In the face of this refusal by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin ... the only way forward is to apply pressure, continue to support Ukraine, and to impose sanctions,” she said.
Italy’s Meloni says she has been denounced to ICC for complicity in genocide
https://arab.news/gxdun
Italy’s Meloni says she has been denounced to ICC for complicity in genocide
- “I don’t believe there is another case like this in the world or in history,” Meloni said.
- She did not elaborate on who had brought the case against her and her ministers
UK to cut protections for refugees under asylum ‘overhaul’
- PM Starmer announced the cuts amid mounting pressure in the face of soaring support for the hard right
- More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year in the UK
LONDON: Britain will drastically reduce protections for refugees under plans to overhaul its asylum system, the Labour government said on Saturday.
The measures were announced as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure over irregular migration in the face of soaring support for the hard right.
“I’ll end UK’s golden ticket for asylum seekers,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood declared in a statement.
Presently, those given refugee status have it for five years, after which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain and eventually citizenship.
But Mahmood’s ministry, known as the Home Office, said it would cut the length of refugee status to 30 months.
That protection will be “regularly reviewed” and refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once they are deemed safe, it added.
The ministry also said that it intended to make those refugees who are granted asylum wait 20 years before applying to be allowed to live in the UK long-term, instead of the current five.
The Home Office called the proposals the “largest overhaul of asylum policy in modern times.”
Starmer, elected last summer, is under pressure to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats from France, something that also troubled his Conservative predecessors.
More than 39,000 people, many fleeing conflict, have arrived this year following such dangerous journeys — more than for the whole of 2024 but lower than the record set in 2022.
The crossings are helping fuel the popularity of Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, which has led Labour by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of this year.
Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with some 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.
