"I am not deciding now" how many Italian military vessels will be dispatched, Crosetto said, describing the matter as "a situation of these days." Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth edition of the 'Risorsa Mare' forum, he said the priority is to restore shipping traffic through the strait.
"We will evaluate with the government and with Parliament what will be necessary to do; the important thing is to restore traffic, so these are ships that, if we send them, we send them to protect merchant ships," the defence minister said.
Crosetto stressed that the Italian interest is specifically the resumption of Italian commercial shipping through Bab el-Mandeb. "Djibouti is not currently being touched by what the Houthis are doing; what interests me is restoring the traffic of Italian ships through the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb," he reiterated.
Addressing the fourth edition of the Risorsa Mare forum in La Spezia, Crosetto said Rome has already moved to avoid depending on the European naval mission's procedures. "We decided, with the Chief of Defence Staff, not to wait for Aspides to decide whether ships can pass or not," he said.
He added that Italy would likely act so that Italian vessels can begin transiting without waiting for European bureaucracy to be added to its own. "Delaying the times in cases like that means delaying the economy, it means aggravating problems," Crosetto said.
The minister framed the possible naval deployment within a broader Italian approach to international crises. "When we can, we intervene to alleviate crises," he said.