Italy renewed its pledge to support the consolidation of the Syrian opposition to the Assad regime, as well as to \u201cseek to alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis\u201d and gave its consent to the \u201cconcrete solidarity\u201d initiative with Turkey involving the deployment of Patriot missiles for the \u201cexclusive defence\u201d of the southeastern borders of NATO. \u201cWe are extremely concerned over the Syrian crisis and consider entirely unacceptable the suffering inflicted on the civilian population. We are committed to supporting the consolidation of the Syrian opposition\u201d, was Premier Mario Monti\u2019s statement at the end of a meeting with Lebanese Premier Najib Mikati today in Rome. The premier renewed Italy\u2019s pledge to \u201cseek to alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis\u201d. Italy, he added, \u201chas made \u20ac6 million available for humanitarian efforts and we are working on a package that I hope will increase that aid. We are also hoping that aid at EU level can be increased to approximately \u20ac120 million\u201d.<\/P>
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\u201cNo reduction of the UNIFIL contingent in Lebanon\u201d<\/STRONG><\/P> Monti also said that he and the Lebanese premier had not spoken of \u201cextending the UNIFIL mission\u201d, but reiterated that Italy \u201cis not considering further reductions in our contingent in Lebanon, since we consider the UNIFIL mission more necessary than ever given the situation in the region\u201d.<\/P> NATO\u2019s \u201cConcrete solidarity\u201d with Turkey<\/STRONG><\/P> Minister Giulio Terzi, who participated in a two-day NATO ministerial meeting that put the central focus on the Syrian situation, explained that the deployment of Patriot missiles in Turkey under NATO command would serve \u201cexclusively\u201d as a demonstration of concrete solidarity with Turkey, a NATO member, and \u201chas nothing to do with the establishment of a no-fly zone or is in any way to be construed as preparation for military action against the Syrian regime\u201d.<\/P> \u201cUnacceptable\u201d the use of chemical weapons<\/STRONG><\/P> The end of the Bashar al Assad regime \u201cseems near\u201d, Terzi said. And if Damascus were to decide to use chemical weapons, either out of desperation or as a means for spreading the conflict beyond its borders, Terzi stressed that it would be \u201cabsolutely unacceptable\u201d, while according to his French colleague Laurent Fabius, the reaction would be \u201csevere\u201d. In the same vein, Britain\u2019s William Hague spoke of the possible \u201cserious consequences\u201d, and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: \u201cWe know that they have warheads\u201d, and that they have \u201cchemical weapons\u201d. The possible use of nerve gas is a red line not crossable even for Russia. Minister Sergei Lavrov, after the NATO-Russia Council meeting in Brussels, warned that \u201cthe use of weapons of mass destruction would have serious implications\u201d, adding that Russia \u201cwould not accept any violation of international treaties\u201d if Syria were to use them.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italy renewed its pledge to support the consolidation of the Syrian opposition to the Assad regime, as well as to \u201cseek to alleviate the serious humanitarian crisis\u201d and gave its consent to the \u201cconcrete solidarity\u201d initiative with Turkey involving the deployment of Patriot missiles for the \u201cexclusive defence\u201d of the southeastern borders of NATO. \u201cWe […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,6,76,39,42],"class_list":["post-18325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-europa","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente","tag-ministri-precedenti","tag-nato","tag-unione-europea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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