Italy’s Release of Palestinian Strains U.S. Ties

A vigorous American protest over Italy’s release of an accused Palestinian terrorist leader soured relations between the two countries Sunday and set the stage for an internal crisis that could bring down the government of Socialist Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.

U.S. Ambassador Maxwell Rabb emerged from a 2-hour and 20-minute meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti reiterating U.S. displeasure about Italy’s cooperation in the flight from Rome of Palestine Liberation Front leader Abul Abbas on Saturday night, after the United States had submitted a formal request for his arrest, pending a petition for extradition.

Extraditon Requested

In addition, Rabb said that he requested the extradition to the United States of the four Palestinian hijackers whose flight to sanctuary was forced down in Sicily by U.S. Navy jets early Friday. The four have been charged by Italian judicial authorities with murdering an American passenger when they seized the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean.

“Foreign Minister Andreotti and I had a long discussion,” the grim-faced ambassador said after the meeting. “I pointed out that it is incomprehensible to the government of the United States how Abul Abbas could be permitted to leave Italy.”

In an arrest warrant, the United States has accused Abbas of masterminding the terrorist operation that resulted in the Achille Lauro hijacking. The White House and State Department have described him as being “involved in savage attacks on civilians” as “one of the most notorious Palestinian terrorists.”

The Palestinian leader, a close ally of Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, helped bring the four terrorists off the Achille Lauro and accompanied them on their intercepted EgyptAir flight to sanctuary. He left Rome for Belgrade on Saturday night with the obvious collusion of the Italian government, despite the U.S. request that he be detained.

A second Palestinian official--who was with Abbas throughout the negotiations in Port Said, Egypt, that ended in the surrender of the hijackers, and who accompanied Abbas aboard the intercepted flight--was identified as Abu Ezz, an aide to Abbas in the Palestine Liberation Front. Ezz was not named in the American arrest warrant.

The EgyptAir plane, with six crewmen aboard, was permitted to leave Rome shortly before noon Sunday. Soon after its takeoff, Egypt allowed the Achille Lauro to sail from Port Said, where it had been held since the hijacking ended Wednesday.

The ship’s destination was not announced, but its agents in Cairo said that the rest of its luxury Mediterranean cruise has been canceled, and sources said that it was expected to sail back to Italy.

Admitting that the end of the hijack affair has put a serious strain on U.S.-Italian relations, an Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman said: “Apparently the judgment of the Americans did not coincide with that of the Italian government. A protest note was delivered to the Italian government that cannot be described as other than firm and severe.”

Coalition in Disarray

While the diplomatic chill between the longtime allies is expected to thaw relatively quickly, a severe crisis concerning the relations of Prime Minister Craxi and Andreotti with Arafat and the PLO has thrown the five-party coalition that rules Italy into disarray and triggered an internal crisis that could bring the government down.

Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini, a former prime minister and leader of the Republican Party in the coalition, has been sharply critical of Craxi and the Christian Democrat foreign minister for their coziness with Arafat, particularly during the Achille Lauro affair.

On Sunday, after a Rome newspaper depicted him in a front-page cartoon as having been stabbed with the “yellow rose of Cairo,” Spadolini called a strategy meeting of his party leadership to convene before a Cabinet meeting this morning at which the coalition partners will debate Craxi’s handling of the hijack crisis.

The middle-of-the-road Turin newspaper, La Stampa, said in a front page editorial Sunday that “the departure of the two Palestinians (Abbas and Ezz) closes the issue of the Achille Lauro, but it opens a political crisis of unpredictable proportions.”

Reservations on Andreotti

The potential for a coalition-shattering crisis that would bring down the Craxi government appeared to have been heightened during the hijack affair when two other parties in the coalition, the Social Democrats and the Liberals, joined Spadolini’s Republicans in expressing deep reservations over Andreotti’s and the prime minister’s actions in calling on Arafat to help them bring it to a peaceful end.

Even though Christian Democrat party chairman Ciriaco de Mita discouraged talk of a government crisis, it appeared likely that developments during the coming week may be out of his control. The Christian Democrats are the dominant party in the governing coalition, but even when combined with Craxi’s Socialists, they cannot muster a parliamentary majority without the support of at least one of their minority partners, the Republicans, Social Democrats or Liberals.

It appears likely that Craxi, who in only 30 days could claim a record as presiding over the longest-lasting government in post-World War II Italian history, will survive at least today’s Cabinet meeting.

However, the Italian Parliament, where members often desert party ranks to vote their feelings of the moment, has scheduled a debate Thursday that could be crucial.

The previous record for durability by an Italian government is 833 days held by Aldo Moro during his prime ministership of 1966-68. Craxi has been prime minister since Aug. 4, 1983, and has presided over perhaps the most stable period in the last two decades. Moro was assassinated by Red Brigades terrorists in 1978.