‘Italian amb’s withdrawal wrong decision: Italian senators

CAIRO – 27 July 2017: Two Italian senators called Thursday the government of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to return the Italian ambassador back to Cairo asserting that “withdrawal of the Italian Ambassador was a wrong decision,” ildubbio newspaper stated.

The Italian senators, Carlo Giovanardi and Luigi Compagna, issued a statement on Thursday in which they expressed that withdrawal the Italy’s ambassador from Cairo had an impact on the decline of Italy's role in Libya, pointing out that France benefited from this withdrawal.

The ildubbio newspaper said the senators called the Italian government to have courage and return the ambassador back immediately, saying that there is no time to postpone this important decision.

They also refereed to tragic death of Giulio Regeni and called the government to take steps to solve this issue. They continued to say that the withdrawal of the Italian ambassador declined the role of Italy not only in Egypt, but also in the whole region.
Egyptian-Italian relations have suffered since the death of Italian PhD student Regeni, who was tortured and killed in Cairo in early 2016. Italian authorities accused Egyptian security forces of killing him. The number of Italian tourists visiting Egypt dropped significantly after Regeni’s incident.

In April 2016, Italy recalled its ambassador to Cairo Maurizio Massari over the death of Regeni.

Earlier, head of the Italian Senate's Defense Commission Nicola Latorre told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that solving Regini’s death case is critical, but that the case has nothing to do with the proposed return of the Italian ambassador to Egypt, saying that Italy's diplomatic presence would serve to alleviate any tension that might exist between the two countries.

In July 17, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi stated in a meeting with Nicola Latorre that his country is keen to bring the killers of Italian researcher Regeni to justice, according to a presidential statement.