Italian Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini Wednesday supported Israel’s objection to Soviet participation in any international conference on Mideast peace unless the Soviets resolve the issues of Jewish emigration and diplomatic relations with Israel.
Spadolini, a former Italian Premier, was speaking at an Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith luncheon in his honor. His remarks followed a European Economic Community Foreign Ministers’ vote this week that such a conference be convened with Soviet participation.
Turning to terrorism, the Defense Minister said he had recently completed a tour of Israel and what he termed the moderate Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. All endorsed the idea of an international conference on terrorism to formulate “new norms of international law aimed at guaranteeing the relations between states and at safeguarding the people’s liberty of movement,” he said.
He stressed the urgency of such a forum. “International terrorism is a threat which affects all world balance; a threat which from the Middle East to the Persian Gulf succeeds in influencing even the balances within the Soviet Union…”
SAYS U.S. ‘PARALYZED’ ON TERRORISM
After meeting with President Reagan earlier this week, Spadolini concluded that the U.S. Administration had been paralyzed on countering terrorism because of the Iran-Contra scandal. He said he could report only one remark of the President’s because the meeting was confidential. Spadolini said Reagan told him, “I have never exchanged weapons for hostages.” He called on the U.S. to take leadership initiatives against terrorism.
Spadolini’s own strong stand against terrorism brought down the coalition government of Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi last summer following the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. The Italian authorities had apprehended Abu Abbas, the alleged mastermind of the hijacking, but released him in the face of Arab pressure. Spadolini then withdrew his party from the coalition and Craxi’s government collapsed.
On Wednesday, Spadolini received a plaque from the ADL honoring him for “his courageous leadership” in the fight against terrorism and his support for peace in the Middle East.
It was noted that Spadolini, who heads the pro-American Republican party in Italy, is a strong supporter of Israel. Speaking in Italian with a translator he quipped that one of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s ministers told him he was “twice a Jew and capable of killing Jesus a second time.” Spadolini bragged about the collection of insults and threats he received accusing him of being “a dirty Zionist.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
