Provoked Kadafi, U.S. Officials Say : Italian Premier Warns Shultz of Rash of Violence

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi told visiting Secretary of State George P. Shultz on Friday that Italy is worried that U.S. military action in the Gulf of Sidra may provoke an increase in terrorism and generate political support for Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

According to a senior U.S. official who attended the talks, Craxi said there was no doubt that the United States had the legal right to do what it did, but he questioned the wisdom of the U.S. strategy because of its unwanted consequences.

The official said Craxi expressed concern that the U.S. action united the Arab world behind Kadafi, giving him a “solidarity” he could not obtain any other way.

Shultz, talking to reporters on the flight from Athens to Rome, anticipated the complaint.

‘Outrageous Behavior’

“There is always a problem in assessing the costs and benefits of something like this,” Shultz said. “When you call somebody’s card in an important way, that tends to give some visibility,” he said. “(But) when somebody engages in outrageous behavior, if you don’t challenge it or do anything about it, then you seem to be going along.”

“We feel that the right judgment on this is to blow the whistle on it,” he added.

Shultz and Craxi met for about an hour. For the secretary of state, who stopped in Rome on his way home from visits to Turkey and Greece, it was the first visit to the Italian capital in almost four years. He and his wife are scheduled to have a private audience with Pope John Paul II today and plan to attend Easter Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday.

The senior U.S. official, who described the meeting to reporters but asked not to be identified by name, said, “The Italian view, as it was stated to us, was that Kadafi had no right to respond with weapons (to U.S. maneuvers in the Gulf of Sidra) and the United States had full rights to defend itself with weapons” when its planes were attacked.

U.S. Overdoing It

But Craxi questioned the U.S. strategy of sending its ships and planes repeatedly into the gulf, which Libya claims as its own territorial waters but which most nations consider to be international waters. He said that Washington was overdoing it by conducting 17 military maneuvers in the area since 1981.

The official said that Shultz “expressed our appreciation for this analysis” which was substantially milder than the Italian government’s original criticism of the U.S. action.

“Maybe the passage of time has given it a different context for them,” the official said.

Prior to his meeting with Craxi, Shultz said the Italian reaction was “perhaps not quite what we would wish for but nevertheless, I think we are in good shape.”

Shultz later met for about 50 minutes with Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Meguid who had stopped in Rome on his way home from an official visit to Belgrade. A U.S. official said that Meguid reiterated the Egyptian government’s earlier criticism of U.S. action against Libya but did not elaborate on the position nor place extra stress on it.

Might Try to Retaliate

Craxi said that Kadafi might try to retaliate for the bloody nose his forces suffered in the Gulf of Sidra by increasing his support for international terrorism, something that might hit hard at Italy because this country is just across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya.

Moreover, the U.S. official said, Craxi expressed concern about the safety of 10,000 Italians living in Libya and about economic relations between the two countries.

Greek and Italian warplanes, joined by U.S. Navy jets from carriers in the Mediterranean, escorted Shultz’s Air Force Boeing 707 transport on its flight from Athens to Rome. The fighter jets, sometimes as many as five at a time, were intended to prevent a possible attack by Libyan aircraft. It was a repeat of the security provided for Shultz on Tuesday during his flight from Ankara to Athens.

Asked if the fighter jets, with air-to-air missiles clearly visible under their wings, caused him any anxiety, Shultz said, “They may make you feel nervous; they make me feel good.”