• Lebanon
  • August 26, 2006
  • 3 minutes read

Former Italian PM: Stability in Middle East hinges on settling the Palestinian question

Former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti has affirmed that the Middle East will not enjoy lasting peace unless the Palestinian question is justly resolved.


Andreotti’s remarks came as arguments on the advantage of sending Italian troops to lead the UNIFIL force in Lebanon mounted amongst Italian political and media mediums.


“The true problem, which has been dragging on for 50 years, is the problem of the Palestinian refugees who live in concentration camps and have no foreseen future”, said Andreotti in an address at an annual conference for an Italian Catholic organization.


He added that if the Palestinian problem isn’t resolved based on a just solution, then moves to disarm Hizbullah and Palestinian resistance factions will become “irrelevant”.


A year ago, Andreotti declared, “If I was born in those Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, then maybe I would have become a terrorist”. His statement stirred a big political fuss.


In a related matter, the brutal Israeli war on Lebanon has had its negative impacts not only inside the Hebrew state, but even outside the borders, spoiling Israel’s relations with some “friendly” countries like Turkey as more Turkish MPs relinquished their membership in the Turkey-Israel friendship society.


Scores of Turkish lawmakers resigned from the said society in the Turkish legislature; but on Thursday the trend reached a very sensitive curve as head of the society MP Wahid Kirshiji relinquished his chairmanship of that society and joined the Lebanon’s Friends Group in the parliament, in protest over that destructive war.


Kirshiji rejected a request made by the Israeli ambassador in Ankara to meet him over the matter.


The number of the Turkish-Israeli friendship society members sharply decreased from 263 members to only 48. Meanwhile, members of the friendship societies with Palestine and Lebanon noticeably increased.


In a related matter, Turkish diplomatic sources unveiled that Turkey, in case it decided to participate in the UNIFIL force, will train elements of the Lebanese army on peace-keeping functions, adding that Turkey has enough experience in this field acquired from partaking in peace-keeping missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, and Afghanistan.


In another development, Israeli settlements in northern occupied Palestine are expected to become dens of prostitution for the UNIFIL forces that are expected to deploy there, an Israeli foundation said.


The foundation added that demand for Israeli prostitutes is expected to increase with the coming of those international troops, warning, in a message it sent to Israeli premier Ehud Olmert in this regard, that those troops will exploit the social needs of Israeli families in those settlements to abuse their women.


“A social catastrophe is anticipated in the north if the government didn’t move to ban such practice”, the foundation warned.