Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the Lower House Friday that United States President Barack Obama only informed Premier Matteo Renzi that an Italian hostage had been killed in a CIA drone strike late on Wednesday. Giovanni Lo Porto, a 39-year-old aid worker for German NGO Welt HungerHilfe, was kidnapped in Pakistan in January 2012 and was killed in a US strike targeting al-Qaeda along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in January this year.
There was controversy in Italy on Thursday when Obama publicly disclosed the deaths of Lo Porto and 77-year-old American hostage Warren Weinstein, as the president said Renzi had been informed the day before. Some opponents questioned why Renzi himself had not made the announcement.
Gentiloni added that the White House took a long time to disclose the deaths of the two hostages because American authorities needed to verify what happened. "The special nature of the anti-terrorism operation...required three months for the necessary checks (before Rome could be informed)," Gentiloni said.
"The government acknowledges President Barack Obama's statements and also the commitment to maximum transparency he expressed". "The (US) government confirmed there was no information leading them to believe hostages were present," Gentiloni said, adding Italy pressed Pakistan to set up a task force to look for Lo Porto as soon as he went missing three years ago. Italy "exerted maximum diplomatic pressure on local authorities to shed light on the incident," he said.
Gentiloni went on to describe Lo Porto as a "generous, experienced aid worker", expressing his sympathy to the slain aid worker's family.
"I can guarantee that Italy will find a way to honour the memory of Giovanni Lo Porto," he added.
As well, Gentiloni said Italy is fully engaged in the effort to free its two remaining hostages in the Middle East. They are Father Paolo Dall'Oglio, a Jesuit priest who went missing in Syria in 2013, and Ignazio Scaravilli, a 77-year-old doctor who disappeared January in Libya. "Our duty is to make every effort to...free our compatriots from their kidnappers," he said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
