All the contradictions of military cooperation between Italy and Qatar
On Turkey, Libya and Egypt, the geopolitical dossiers of Italy and Qatar do not always coincide, yet the collaboration between armies is strengthened. The in-depth analysis by Giuseppe Gagliano
Cooperation between Italy and Qatar in the military sector continues. In fact, on 10 September, the official visit to Italy of a delegation led by the Commander of the Terrestrial Forces of Qatar, Major General Saeed Hesayen Mohammed Al-Khayarin, ended. The previous day a cooperation agreement was signed with the Army Chief of Staff , General Salvatore Farina, the premises of which were laid during the Italy-Qatar Army Staff Talks in Doha on 7- 8 May 2019.
The agreement provides for the possibility of conducting training and training activities in the Qatari territory aimed at developing fighting capabilities of infantry, artillery and cavalry in favor of the Qatari Emiri Land Forces. However, such a partnership poses many problems for the consistency of our foreign policy.
Qatar is supporting Erdogan's Turkish power projection policy by sending thousands of Syrian rebels and terrorists to Libya and also financing the transport of mercenaries through Gaziantep airport. Well, all this should come as no surprise given that during the 2011 war, Qatar had not only deployed its air force against the loyalists and the army of the then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi but had also supplied weapons to the revolutionary forces in Libya. thereby harming not only our country but helping to destabilize Libya.
Among the main persons responsible for these operations are on the one hand Muhammad Hamad al-Hajri, charge d'affaires of the Qatari embassy in Libya, and on the other hand the intelligence general Salim Ali al-Jarbou.
Furthermore, in addition to supporting the Muslim Brotherhood as a whole, from Qatar the spiritual leader of the Brotherhood, Yusuf Qaradawi, has repeatedly incited the jihad in Syria against Assad.
One of the characters most involved in eastern terrorism would be Mohammed Mahmoud Ben Dardaf – belonging to the jihadist group "Ansar al-Sharia" – wanted by the Libyan government for carrying out a terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in September 2012, due to an attack of which the American ambassador Chris Stevens was killed.
The fact that it was eliminated in May 2019 does not make our country's support for Qatar any less problematic.
Support that appears to be in open contrast to that given by Italy to Egypt, a nation that is among the major opponents of the foreign policy of Turkey and Qatar.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/libia-egitto-e-non-solo-tutte-le-contraddizioni-della-cooperazione-militare-tra-italia-e-qatar/ on Mon, 14 Sep 2020 11:30:46 +0000.