Italy propose global ceasefire for 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics

Italy will submit a proposal for a worldwide ceasefire to the United Nations ahead of next year's Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Tuesday.

As a concept, a global truce during the Olympics dates to the ancient Games in Greece where warring factions agreed to put down their arms for the duration of the event, so that athletes could safely travel to and from ancient Olympia.

Calls by Olympic organisers and the UN for global ceasefires have not been heeded on the occasion of modern-era Games since 1896, including the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"In view of the Milano-Cortina Olympics, we are presenting a proposal for an Olympic truce for all wars, including Ukraine and the Middle East, to the United Nations," Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said.

"We must be champions of peace. We support the US plan (to end war in Gaza), and, as Pope Leo has said, we must never give up hoping for peace."

The Milano-Cortina Games begin on 6 February and run until 22 February.

The 20-point plan presented by US president Donald Trump, on which Israel and Hamas militants began indirect talks on Monday, is seen as the most promising initiative to end a war that has killed over 67,000 Palestinians since 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the Palestinian militant group's attack.

In response to Gaza's devastation and humanitarian disaster wrought by Israel's military campaign, a number of major Western countries, though not Italy, have formally recognised Palestinian statehood, endorsing longstanding Palestinian aspirations to an independent homeland on Israeli-occupied land.

In Ukraine, the pro-Western government has been battling a Russian invasion for more than three-and-a-half years, Europe's biggest armed conflict since World War Two and one that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Reuters