The Arab League to D’Alema

“Thank you for your positions”

ROME – The Arab ambassadors in Italy are mobilizing in favor of the people of Gaza, and to do so as a first act they decide to have a letter of thanks to Massimo D’Alema for the positions held these days.

Melhem Mistou, ambassador of Lebanon and dean of the Arab League ambassadors in Rome, wrote to D’Alema to have “the pleasure of expressing them on behalf of the Arab ambassadors in Italy, full appreciation for the positions that His Excellency expressed and maintained since beginning of the last very serious crisis that still today bloody the Gaza Strip “.

In recent days D’Alema has repeatedly accused Israel of reacting with the use of a disproportionate force to launch Qassam rockets, and in particular of leading a “punitive expedition” more than a “war” against a military part with an equal military force. The Arab ambassadors argue that “his lucid and measured analysis of the facts he expressed in his recent statements unfortunately reflect the dramatic situation on the ground”. “Gaza, worn out by two years of severe embargo and now under military attack, is only the last tragic victim of the lack of dialogue and the abandonment of the ways of peace, that is only possible if pursued with honest and passionate dedication “.

On behalf of his colleagues, the Lebanese ambassador closes the letter thanking D’Alema “for his tireless commitment to the search for dialogue and a possible peace”. In addition to the letter to the former Foreign Minister, the Arab ambassadors asked to meet some leaders of Italian foreign policy. Tomorrow they will see Foreign Minister Franco Frattini; after him they asked the president of the Chamber Gianfranco Fini and the president of the foreign commission of the Senate Lamberto Dini.

January 14 2009