Turkey and Saudi Arabia are an
integral part of the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni said at question time in the Lower
House Thursday.
"Countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey are in the
anti-Daesh coalition and must remain there," he said, repeating
that the alliances should be as broad as possible.
"What we cannot imagine is that the coalition be only a
group of hyper-homogeneous countries," he said.
Gentiloni added that "this does not mean having a position"
on a range of issues including "not defending the rights of the
Kurds, who are in the front line and who we are arming, training
and defending".
The foreign minister went on to deny that Saudi Arabia was
Italy's biggest arms importer.
"Saudi Arabia is not the top destination for Italian arms
exports: in 2014 it was in sixth place and in 2013 Italy was the
fourth-biggest supplier of arms to Riyadh after Britain, France
and Germany," he said, stressing that Italy complies with
international treaties on the sale of arms.
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