What Haftar asked Conte. Facts and comments
Errors and omissions of the Conte government with Haftar for the story of the Italian fishermen kidnapped in Libya and then freed by Haftar, The comment by Gianandrea Gaiani, director of Defense Analysis
The release of the crews of the two 108-day Italian fishing boats detained without charge in Benghazi by the authorities responding to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar is great news for the mariners of Mazara del Vallo (8 Italians, 6 Tunisians, 2 Filipinos and 2 Senegalese) and for their relatives, tried for three and a half months of anguish.
However, it cannot be considered a diplomatic or political success not only for the long times that have proved necessary to reach the solution of this kidnapping but also for the humiliations suffered and the price that Italy has had to pay, moreover not yet completely clear in its real dimension.
The catwalk in Benghazi by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio was out of place and serious for at least two reasons. The two political leaders sought glory and visibility close to Christmas and in the government's moment of greatest difficulty but have nothing to brag about. In this affair, Italy has been humiliated for over a hundred days in its former colony where many of our national interests are at stake.
The Turks obtained the liberation of one of their ships captured by Haftar's patrol boats in just six days, simply by threatening muscular responses if not real reprisals but neither Recep Tayyp Erdogan nor the Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, reached Benghazi to pay homage to the general.
The second reason is linked precisely to Haftar's re-legitimation, who emerges strengthened from the meeting with Conte and Di Maio on the domestic and international scene, once again showing himself as the undisputed protagonist of the Libyan crisis and its possible solutions. A role from which he had been cut off in recent months after the military defeat suffered in Tripolitania and after the rise of the president of the Tobruk parliament, Agila Saleh, to a prominent political figure in Cyrenaica.
In addition, Haftar has seen his leadership role widely recognized by the former colonial power: symbolisms that have a strong meaning in those parts.
It cannot be excluded that Haftar himself demanded and obtained the visit of the highest Italian authorities and, moreover, the Cyrenaica media obviously gave ample attention to the visit of Conte and Di Maio (of which, at 7 pm, there is no news on the sites of the Italian Government) but there is no doubt that seeing the leaders of our executive shake the hand of the man who arbitrarily detained Italian ships and crews constitutes a further humiliation of which it is legitimate to ask whether Conte and Di Maio, affected by the " Big Brother syndrome ”” (as Carlo Panella writes in a comment on the online newspaper Linkiesta ), are really aware.
An area in which the Prime Minister's spokesman, Rocco Casalino, has entered, who ( as Il Foglio reports today ) made known to journalists who asked for information his "geolocation" in an air base near Benghazi. A gesture of lack of prudence in terms of institutional security, especially in a turbulent country like Libya.
It is useless to deny it, the image and credibility of Italy come apart from this story. Probably we could have brought our compatriots home by showing (even militarily) the attributes of the first economic and military power in the Mediterranean instead of lowering the breeches with the premier and foreign minister at the feet of the field marshal.
As we have written on several occasions, among the cards that Rome could play there was also the non-exclusion of military options or declaring (as Turkey did in the analogous case) that those who touch Italian interests and citizens automatically become a legitimate target. Taking on such initiatives means safeguarding national dignity, a heritage that should have some relevance for the eighth world economic power. Even a man who certainly cannot be considered a warmonger like the bishop of Mazara del Vallo, Monsignor Domenico Mogavero, has evoked the use of military deterrence so that no new seizures of fishing boats are repeated.
"At least bring our Navy ships to the limit of Libyan territorial waters and let our planes fly over the area to give the signal that we are here and that we are not willing to accept again along these diktats of the Benghazi government" said the high prelate addressing the government.
Even by renouncing all forms of muscular pressure, we would at least have been able to avoid the government "procession" from Haftar, leaving the intelligence services to manage the return home of our compatriots, which certainly do not have to demonstrate their skills, well known to all. , but which are an instrument of foreign policy, not an alternative to having one.
After all, the vice president of the government of Tripoli (GNA), Ahmed Maitig, played an important role in the liberation of Italian seafarers, who despite belonging to the opposite side to Haftar enjoys wide esteem in Cyrenaica. The undisputed protagonist of the recent stabilization negotiations, Maitig concluded the agreement, signed in Soci (Russia) with one of Haftar's sons, which allowed the reopening of wells and oil exports throughout Libya, allowing oxygen to be given to the economy of the former Italian colony.
The conclusion of the story of the Benghazi hostages is therefore good news for the 18 prisoners but a defeat for Italy that could worsen further when the price that Rome had to pay to Haftar, whose Headquarters praised the role, becomes more evident. of the Italian government in supporting the resolution of the Libyan crisis without mentioning the liberation of Italian fishermen.
It is therefore difficult to say whether the field marshal was satisfied with being faced with Conte and Di Maio with "hat in hand", an element that certainly strengthened Haftar's image even among the tribes that support him, including the clans to which he belongs. of the four "footballers" in prison in Italy with heavy sentences for managing the trafficking of human beings and causing the death of many migrants.
Haftar asked for their release in exchange for the release of the fishermen but it is clear that giving in to this blackmail means ridiculing Justice and potentially having to prepare to accept similar ones from "rogue" states, tribal leaders and "field marshals" of Africa, transforming into a precious prey is every Italian who for work or other reasons enters or approaches some unstable states or governed by despots or scoundrels.
Libyan sources close to Haftar told the Nova news agency that in today's talks the Libyan general personally requested Conte's intervention for the four Libyan citizens sentenced on appeal in Italy for trafficking in human beings and awaiting a sentence final of the Court of Cassation. Prime Minister Conte, according to the sources of "Nova", replied that the executive and judicial powers in Italy "are separate" and that the judiciary "is independent", while undertaking to follow the developments of the case and hoping for an "adequate solution "Of the story.
According to the same Libyan sources (nothing has been leaked from Italian sources about the Benghazi talks) the prime minister has "promised" to commit himself in the first instance to prevent incidents such as that of the 18 fishermen of Mazara del Vallo from happening again in the future. The Italian premier also ensured measures to "strengthen trust between the parties", starting with the "reopening of the Italian consulate in Benghazi and the facilitation of visa procedures for health and study purposes in Italy". For his part, the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, promised to "support reconstruction projects in eastern Libya, in particular the coastal road between Tripoli and Benghazi".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-ha-chiesto-haftar-a-conte-fatti-e-commenti/ on Sat, 19 Dec 2020 06:52:31 +0000.