While the United States has pressured Italy to take part in a military operation to restore a semblance of order in Libya, the country's defense minister Roberta Pinotti said that she does not consider such an operation "inevitable".
While Italy has a pacifist constitution that rejects aggressive war, its NATO allies have suggested that it should increase ground operations in the Middle East and North Africa. According to military analyst Pietro Batacchi, chief editor of the military magazine Rivista Italiana Difesa, a ground operation should not be completed without a political settlement.
"The situation in Libya is just reason for Italy to say 'no' to its alies and fully support a political solution, exactly so that past mistakes such as the 2011 military operations are avoided," Batacchi told Sputnik Italia.
"For now, Italy is training troops in Irbil in Iraq, while in Baghdad there are the carabinieri, who train the Iraqi police and special forces to become units of the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service. Also, there is our air force in Kuwait, with two Predator strike UAVs, one KC-767A tanker plane, and 4 Tornado IDS bombers," Batacchi told Sputnik Italia.
Batacchi also said that in Libya, a ground operation could only be requested by the country's government and not NATO, as was the case for Italy in 2011. However, as long as the political situation in Libya remains unclear, an Italian intervention appears off the table.
