(ANSAmed) - Rome, September 28 - Italian Premier Matteo Renzi
on Wednesday remembered Shimon Peres as a "great man of peace"
following his death early on Wednesday at the age of 93.
"Shimon Peres, a great of our time, a man of peace",
tweeted Renzi after learning that the former Israeli president
had died.
The premier remembered the Nobel Peace Prize winner as a
"great friend of Italy" and said he had met him on September 2
at the Ambrosetti Forum, an annual international economic
conference held at Villa d'Este in the northern town of
Cernobbio on the shores of Lake Como.
Peres "is a great friend of Italy, and most of all of
peace", said Renzi.
"We all remember him with affection and gratitude, the
Italian people (are) very close to the Israelis", said the
premier.
"He is one of those figures who are worth twice as much",
he told RTL 102.5 radio.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Peres was a
"great Israeli leader".
"I remember Shimon Peres, a great Israeli leader, Nobel
prize for the Oslo accords, tireless supporter of the two-State
solution, Shalom ", tweeted Gentiloni.
Gentiloni told State broadcaster Rai's Radio Anch'io
program that Peres represents "Israel's history, from young
immigrant to elderly president, Nobel winner, a symbol of peace
of that country".
Gentiloni also remembered in the live interview that the
former Israeli president was in favor of a "solution to the
conflict, a two-State solution", at a time when it is losing
momentum within the international community.
"There is no alternative to that solution", Gentiloni
said.
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