Italian Premier Matteo Renzi
told French President Francois Hollande in Paris Thursday that
culture was crucial to beating terror.
Meanwhile, amid Hollande's moves to drum up German and
Russian support for its anti-ISIS strikes in Syria, 800
pump-action rifles were seized in Trieste on their way from
Turkey to Belgium and the Netherlands.
Before returning to Rome where he was due to meet US Vice
President Joe Biden, Renzi told the French leader that the
response to the threat of Islamist terror cannot be solely
military action.
"A cultural response is needed," Renzi told a news
conference at the Elysee Palace, the residence of the French
president.
Renzi's government has announced plans to invest an extra
two billion euros in security and education/culture following
this month's attacks in Paris in which 130 people died,
including Italian doctoral student Valeria Solesin.
Going on to speak at the Sorbonne, again Renzi called for
spending on culture and education to equal that on national
security - and received a standing ovation.
Preventing disenfranchised youth from getting sucked in to
extremist groups requires "more integration", Renzi said.
"All the money we allocate to security will become an
investment if we remember what we're defending: our identity,
which made of pluralism, dialogue, and tolerance".
Italy and France stand united against Islamist terrorism,
Hollande and Renzi also stressed.
The meeting was part of a series of talks Hollande is
staging with other leaders to discuss how to defeat Islamist
group ISIS following this month's terrorist attacks in Paris.
The leaders of France and Italy agreed it will take a
broader international coalition and more military initiatives to
defeat the Islamic State (ISIS), a fundamentalist Islamist
insurgency that has carved out a so-called caliphate for itself
out of parts of Iraq and Syria, and whose affiliates,
sympathizers and cells have carried out bloody attacks in
several African countries as well as Paris.
"We need an increasingly broad coalition leading to the
destruction of ISIS and its atrocious design," Renzi said,
adding that Italy remains committed to its current international
military missions.
"We are militarily engaged, in many cases jointly with
France," the Italian premier said citing missions in Africa,
Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria.
The November 13 Islamic terrorist massacre in Paris "was
not just an attack on France and Europe, but on humanity" said
Renzi.
However the response cannot be just be a military one,
Renzi insisted, for the disenfranchised youth and petty
criminals who drifted into extremism and mowed 130 people down
in Paris were European citizens.
"We need a cultural response," the premier repeated.
French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem agreed.
Interviewed by ANSA at the Sorbonne, she said: "Matteo
Renzi is right: the barbarity of the terrorists must not only be
fought with military intervention and security, which are of
course fundamental, but also via school, university and
culture".
Also on Thursday, Hollande enlisted the support of Germany
which said it would send reconnaissance aircraft to back
airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.
He then travelled to Moscow where Russian President
Vladimir Putin also vowed that Russia would do its utmost to
help defeat ISIS.
Hollande told Putin "now is the time to accept
responsibility for what's happening.
"We have to create a grand coalition to fight ISIS.
"Our enemy is Daesh, the Islamic State, it has territories,
an army and resources, therefore we have to create this large
coalition to hit these territories," the French president said.
"Russia is ready to cooperate with France, the attacks
unite our efforts against terrorism," Putin said.
Putin commended Hollande's "great attention" and "efforts"
to "create a large anti-terrorism coalition" which is
"absolutely necessary.
"In this sense our positions coincide," he said
Meanwhile at the northeastern Italian port of Trieste,
Italian police seized some 800 pump-action rifles heading from
Turkey to Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.
The weapons were being transported, without authorisation,
in a Dutch truck driven by a Turkish national, police said.
The load comprised 781 Winchester SXP models and 66
Winchester SXP rifles.
The Turkish maker of the weapons was cited for breaching
national security regulations.
Controls at Italian ports have been stepped up in the wake
of the November 13 Paris terror attacks.
In other remarks on the terror threat Thursday, Renzi said
"we must give priority" to a solution to the Libya crisis, where
ISIS is gaining ground amid faltering efforts to set up a
national-unity government.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, for his part, said a
plan was needed to deal with a post-conflict Syria to avert a
repetition of the anarchy that set in after the Libya war.
"We still have open scars: we want to see if Syria becomes
a second Libya or if there is a framework, a clear plan for the
aftermath, before starting," he said to a reporter who asked him
if Italy will follow France and Germany in air action in Syria.
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