-- Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday said it was too soon to consider the return of Russian gas, notwithstanding the ongoing energy supply shocks amid the Middle East crisis, multiple media outlets reported.
Addressing reporters in Verona, Meloni said exertion of economic pressure on Russia was the strongest weapon to bring peace in Ukraine and hoped that considerable progress towards achieving that goal would have been made by January 2027, when the problem is expected to become real, Bloomberg reported.
"We must be very careful in how we move from this point of view," Meloni reportedly said. "It's too early to talk about this dynamic."
Meloni's statements were in response to comments by energy major Eni's (E) chief executive officer Claudio Descalzi on Sunday, who advocated suspending the proposed ban on imports of liquefied natural gas from Russia.
Italy's PM office did not immediately respond to' request for comment.
Italy relies heavily on gas for its energy needs, and the ongoing energy supply crisis and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war have hit the country hard, pressuring its energy situation, already strained by the Ukraine conflict, the report said.
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