G7 Foreign ministers will meet on Monday to reach a common position on the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who is hosting the two-day conference in the small Italian town of Fiuggi, said he does not think reaching a consensus on the arrest warrant will be difficult.
“It’s not an immediate and actual problem. I don’t think Netanyahu will come to Italy or anywhere else,” he told the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera before the meeting.
The ICC issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Netanyahu and the recently dismissed Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as the Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, for alleged war crimes relating to the conflict in Gaza.
Israel’s allies had criticised the decision, member states of the ICC were generally obliged to enforce the arrest warrants, though there is disagreement over how to handle Netanyahu’s case.
In addition to the Middle East crisis, the war in Ukraine and the implications of Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president for the international order are among the main topics on the agenda for the meeting, which is the final one between the G7 foreign ministers for this year.
Mr Tajani told the Corriere della Sera that he was in favour of a peace conference on Ukraine with the participation of the United States and Russia as soon as possible.
Russia fired a new medium-range missile at Ukraine last week in a new escalation of the conflict that has now been ongoing for over 1,000 days.
In recent days, Ukraine had reportedly fired at military targets in Russia with ATACMS missiles from the U.S. that can travel up to 300 kilometres and Storm Shadow cruise missiles from the United Kingdom.
The G7 foreign ministers would also discuss the threat to the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist leadership in Beijing regards as its territory.
Italy holds the presidency of the G7 until the end of the year.
The group’s other members are the U.S., Canada, the UK, Japan, France and Germany.
By 2025, Canada is due to take over the presidency.
