Dear Director, the new node of Lodo Moro. It is now more than just a suspicion that is spreading among the European security services, including the British MI6, and which greatly embarrasses the CIA and the United Nations. This would be a reloaded version of the controversial «Lodo Moro», the secret non-belligerence pact between the Italian State and the Front for the Liberation of Palestine of the 1970s. A masterpiece of Realpolitik who knows if still in force. But let’s go in order. After the recent attacks by the Israeli army on the bases of Unifil – the UN contingent in charge of supervising the demilitarization of a strip of territory between the border of Lebanon and Israel – the existence of a secret agreement between Unifil and Hezbollah. In practice, it seems that UNIFIL has turned more than a blind eye to the proliferation of Lebanese militia shelters. Guido Crosetto will speak about this confidentially tomorrow in Israel. The Italian Defense Minister has already raised the issue with his counterparts, who appreciated his authority and frankness during the very successful G7 in Naples. Crosetto insisted on the need to update the rules of engagement, maintaining Unifil’s neutrality and at the same time recognizing the great value of the mission.
Created in 1978 by the UN, UNIFIL is made up of soldiers from 40 countries responsible for ensuring peace in Lebanon. Since 2006, it has taken on a broader role, monitoring a 20 kilometer area between the southern border of Lebanon and Israel. Criticism of the UN’s work in the region arose immediately and the current war scenario has made the situation even more delicate today. The reference to Lodo Moro arises spontaneously. Everyone knew of its existence, however no one can say they had the official text in their hands. The brainchild of Aldo Moro, the agreement aimed to guarantee peace and stability for Italy and the Vatican in exchange for tolerance towards Palestinian terrorists in our country. Although it was frowned upon by some allies, the agreement was nevertheless “endured”. Who knows if in different forms, this Lodo continues to exist today and who could be the contracting parties? It is unlikely to be the very dilapidated Palestinian authority. More likely it is Iran, Qatar and Türkiye, with their tentacles. Lodo certainly played a positive role for the Italian soldiers engaged in Lebanon: between 1982 and 1984, while the Americans lost 265 men and the French 89, the Italians recorded 75 wounded and only 2 deaths. If Moro was the director of Lodo, the main actor was Colonel Stefano Giovannone, head of the Sismi center in Beirut. It was he who spoke of «commitments aimed at excluding Italy from terrorist plans». Giulio Andreotti certainly, as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister at the time, knew of the agreement, but never admitted its existence: in the papers in his archive there are references to meetings with Giovannone, but no trace of the Lodo. After the Fiumicino massacre in 1973, with 32 deaths, Lodo Moro became the beacon of Italian foreign policy in that tormented area.
Some, like judge Carlo Mastelloni, considered it a real treaty which, in addition to non-belligerence, provided for political support and material aid to the Palestinians. General Armando Sportelli, director of Sismi in the 1980s, claimed that «the Lodo Moro was stipulated without asking permission from Israel, the USA and Great Britain». Authoritatively, the former President of the Republic Francesco Cossiga, in Renato Farina’s book ‘Cossiga mi dice’ (2011), suggests a connection between the massacre at the Bologna station in 1980 – not of fascist origin, as established by the Supreme Court – and a possible violation of the Lodo Moro. According to Cossiga, a so-called «Lodo D’Alema-Pollari» would also have contributed to protecting the Italian forces in Lebanon from attacks. Il Picconatore questioned Unifil’s actions, so much so that he presented a parliamentary question during the fourth Berlusconi government – to the Minister of Defense at the time, Ignazio La Russa – to ask if “the Italian units stationed in Lebanon” had “facilitated the rearmament of Hezbollah terrorist commandos by Iran and Syria.”
Today, the role of UNIFIL is questioned like never before. The mission, in exchange for the safety of its men, would have tolerated Hezbollah’s military activities, such as the installation of missile launchers and the digging of long tunnels, even suitable for vehicles, towards Israel in the demilitarized zone while a photo of the current very young man is circulating on the web UN Secretary General Guterres with PLO leaders. A fake, according to intelligence findings, which however would give the meaning of the controversial relations between some UN leaders and the Palestinian realities linked to terrorism. Among these Hamas, which over the years has heavily infiltrated UNRWA, the United Nations agency that deals with Palestinian refugees. A unique situation, given that a special agency has been created to deal with refugees of a single ethnic group. Guido Crosetto is seriously intent on rewriting the rules, abandoning the logic of the Lodo Moro and aiming for real security of the borders between Lebanon and Israel. To those who question his loyalty to Israel, he bluntly replies that no one has always shown himself closer to Tel Aviv than him. However, as Andreotti and Moro did, he knows well that, to be true friends of Israel, the heart is not enough but also a foreign policy that knows how to defend the national interest. The need for clarity and security has never been more urgent. Tempus fugit.
#rewrite #rules #Unifil #Tempo #mission
