(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 21 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Thursday that Italy respects the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif, adding that Rome would assess what to do about this decision with its allies.
    "We support the ICC, while always remembering that the court must play a legal role and not a political role," Tajani said.
    "We will evaluate together with our allies what to do and how to interpret this decision".
    Tajani said the government would "see what the contents of the decision are and the reasons that led to this decision by the court".
    Netanyahu compared the ICC's decision to a modern-day Dreyfus trial.
    The opposition centre-left Democratic Party (Pd) said the government should do what it can for the arrest warrants to be executed.
    "The attack on the International Criminal Court over the arrest warrant for Netanyahu has begun," said PD foreign affairs chief Peppe Provenzano via X.
    The ICC is a fundamental element of international justice, founded on the Rome Statute.
    "Italy has a duty to respect it, but also to comply with its decisions".
    Sources in Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League party said the ICC's decision was: "absurd, a pro-Islamist political sentence that moves a necessary peace further away". (ANSA).