Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi insisted on Thursday that US soldiers were to blame for the death of an Italian agent in Iraq, but said the incident would not harm US ties or speed an Italian withdrawal from Iraq. Relations between Italy and the United States have come under strain following the March 4 killing of Nicola Calipari at a US checkpoint, with Washington and Rome blaming each other. In a sombre address to parliament, Berlusconi looked to strike a delicate balance between defending national dignity and reassuring his ally that relations would remain strong.
"The friendship between Italy and the United States has overcome more difficult problems than this," said Berlusconi, who is one of US President George W. Bush's closest allies.
"We have no intention of establishing any link between the events surrounding the death of our agent and the role of our country in Iraq," he added, shrugging off calls from some parties for Italian troops to be pulled from Iraq in protest.
Italy and the United States held a joint inquiry into the killing of Calipari, who died as he was escorting an Italian hostage to freedom. But they failed to draw joint conclusions and have issued conflicting reports over the past five days.
While the US military exonerated its troops of any blame, Rome said nervous, inexperienced American soldiers and a badly executed road block were at the root of the shooting.
"The absence of criminal intent does not at all exclude responsibility because of negligence," Berlusconi said, making clear he did not believe Calipari was deliberately targeted.
Washington's refusal to accept the blame has infuriated many Italians and put pressure on Berlusconi to speed up the withdrawal of some 3,000 troops from southern Iraq, which is provisionally slated to start in September.
But the prime minister repeated on Thursday that he would co-ordinate the eventual pullout. "The withdrawal of our troops certainly won't be unilateral, but agreed with our allies."
The Communist and Green parties demanded in parliament an immediate end to the Iraq mission, while the largest opposition party, the Democrats of the Left (DS), demanded an apology.
"We believe that the government of the United States should say sorry," DS leader Piero Fassino said in a speech.
Although the military inquiry is closed, Italian magistrates are pursuing their own investigations and Berlusconi said the government would give its full support to their efforts.
Comments
Comments are closed.