Prime Minister Monti called President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu to explain the Italian decision.

In the same way as other European partners, whilst supporting the draft resolution, Italy has asked President Abbas to accept the immediate resumption of peace negotiations without preconditions and to refrain from using today’s vote in the General Assembly to obtain access to other UN Specialized Agencies, to appeal to the International Criminal Court or for any other retrospective use. To Netanyahu, Monti assured that this decision does not in any way affect the longstanding and strong friendship with Israel and expressed Italy’s firm commitment to avoid any misuse to attempt unfairly to bring Israel – which has the right to guarantee its own security – before the International Criminal Court.