Italian Official Rejects Force in Ship Rescue

Italian Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini on Tuesday adamantly rejected the use of force to rescue the crew and passengers of the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro.

Briefing the Italian Parliament on the hostage crisis, Spadolini said he opposed a military solution. “We count on reason prevailing and a peaceful solution with no surrender to terrorist blackmail,” the defense minister said.

During the same briefing, which shed little new light on the crisis, Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti told the Parliament members that Italy is engaged in “a war of nerves” with the terrorists.

Andreotti said that Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and his ministers were in contact with Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and other countries as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization in efforts to resolve the crisis.

Unconfirmed Reports

In his talk to the legislators, Andreotti cautioned against too quickly accepting what he called unconfirmed reports that the Palestinians who seized control of the ship already had killed two American passengers.

Spadolini also said that the demand of the hijackers for the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners was not entirely clear to the Italian government. He said he did not know for sure but the hijackers seemed to be seeking the release of prisoners held by countries other than Israel, including Italy.

According to police sources, Italy holds 13 Palestinians, including several in connection with two recent terrorist grenade attacks in Rome and five who allegedly plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy here.

Despite Spadolini’s rejection of a military solution, the defense minister put some units of the armed forces on alert late Monday and early Tuesday, then dispatched helicopters to Cyprus to establish an aid center, if needed, for passengers and crew of the ship.