Italian Ambassador Valentino Simonetti said that "Italy, which exerts all efforts with its European partners to bring an end to the Damascus regime's bloody repression of protests, shares deep concerns with Saudi Arabia on Syria."
Simonetti said that a large number of Arab, European and US diplomats would take part in the Tunisia conference with the aim of putting more pressure on the Syrian regime. "The Friends of Syria will meet with only one objective...to seek ways to end the bloodshed and oust President Bashar Al-Assad," said the Italian diplomat.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and his Italian counterpart Giuli Terzi will attend the Tunisian conference.
On Italy's stance on Syria, the envoy said: "We support the Saudi position fully." Italy, he said, is ready to support new UN, EU and Arab League measures to find a peaceful, political solution to the crisis. The Italian position was reiterated by Terzi, who said that the escalation of the violence in Syria is “unacceptable and we need to halt this horrible bloodbath…the military attacks have increased over the last two weeks and the international community needs to undertake better coordinated actions.”
On the question of Iran, Simonetti expressed concerns with the deterioration of the situation by the day. The European Union buys about 18 percent of Iran’s oil exports, most of it from sales to Italy and Spain. He said the failure of the mission of the chief of the UN nuclear watchdog to Iran and an Iranian general's warning of a pre-emptive strike against a neighboring country were worrisome.
About the participation of Italy in the G20 parliamentary speakers meeting in Riyadh, Simonetti said Vannino Chiti, Italian senate's vice president, will lead the three-member Italian team to the speakers' conference. Chiti will give a talk focused on "Global Dialogue between Cultures", said the envoy, adding that the Italian senators will also hold bilateral meetings during their stay in Riyadh.
On the rade front, the diplomat said Riyadh and Rome have forged closer ties. The two-way trade, he said, exceeds 8 billion euros with the balance of trade in favor of Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom's exports to Italy totaled 5.2 billion euros during the first nine months of 2011, while Italian exports to Saudi Arabia amounted to 2.8 million euros during the same period. He said that several Italian companies are bidding for new projects in the Kingdom.
"Some of the biddings are on final stages," said the diplomat, without divulging details.
In this context, he said that the Saudi Arabian Fertilizers Company (Safco) awarded a turnkey project to Italy's Saipem SpA recently to design and build a $533 million plant in Jubail. Production capacity at the new plant, which will be funded internally, is expected to reach 1.1 million tons of urea per year. Commercial production is expected to start within the third quarter of 2014.
Asked about the Eurozone crisis, Simonetti expressed happiness on the agreement of a second bailout plan reached by the European Union finance ministers. Greece, which is suffering from an ever-worsening debt crisis, is scheduled to redeem a large amount of government bonds on March 20. Without further debt relief measures, it would have been difficult for the country to collect funds, resulting in a default that surely would have an adverse effect that will rock global markets.
