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“Absolutely not”. Thus, with that “no” in capital letters, an intelligence source responded yesterday to the explanations requested by the newspaper after the appearance of the article by Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab newspaper published in London, in which the release was attributed. from fishermen arrested by General Khalifa Haftar’s militias to “an agreement with Italy for the release of its fishermen in exchange for Libyan detainees.” Ultimately, our government would have agreed to release, accompany and hand over Haftar the four human smugglers repeatedly described as the indispensable counterpart to obtain the return of the Antarctic and Medinea ferries and their crews. The four, sentenced by the Catania Court to more than 20 years in prison for having caused, in 2015, the death of 49 migrants locked in the hold of their ship, seem to be, fortunately, still in prison in Italy.
According to sources cited by Asharq Al Awsat, their exchange with the fishermen would have “ended in the context of regional mediation.” Along these lines, the attempt to credit the government’s surrender to blackmail aggravated by an illegitimate release is evident. But the news, while unfounded, gives an idea of how Haftar and his people are taking advantage of the inglorious catwalk in Benghazi offered to them by our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. The game is obvious. Conte and Di Maio have bowed to blackmail, giving the general a political legitimacy that even allies like Russia, Egypt and the Emirates are struggling to recognize. But since they have accepted such humiliation, it can all seem true. Even the inference that they would have attended the exchange between the fishermen and the four convicts that Haftar had repeatedly made to understand that he wanted to exchange with our fishermen. Sure that is a lie, but in Libya all truth is relative. And in any case it is worth less than the denial of those who have bowed their heads to blackmail.
The Prime Minister’s attempt to pass off the surrender of Libya as a decisive step in ensuring the Christmas return of our fishermen and building astonishing popularity is proving to be a dangerous boomerang. A boomerang that runs the risk of sinking an already exhausted prime minister and forced to suffer attacks from the opposition on this front as well. Forza Italia senator Maurizio Gasparri, exploiting the reserve surrounding Conte and Di Maio’s Libyan trip, announces a question asking for clarification on what has been published by Asharqw Al Awsat. “I want to know urgently if this is true, how are things going? – asks the blue senator – Tell us immediately and in the sun. I ask Conte publicly. Instead, Copasir Vice President Adolfo Urso expects the Prime Minister and head of Farnesina to urgently explain the modalities of the release to the Secret Services Commission. “The (very high) political price that Italy paid to finally obtain the liberation, after 108 days, of our fishermen, demonstrates without a shadow of a doubt – argues Urso – that the seizure was carried out only to force Italy to enshrine Haftar as Cyrenaica’s sole interlocutor, giving her that central role in the ongoing peace negotiations, which at this point everyone denied her. Italy comes out humiliated, relegated to a pop where it had always been the protagonist “.
