The Italian Senate has approved a new law that allows Italian intelligence members to carry out secret missions inside foreign countries, including Libya, according to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero.
The law allows staff of the Italian Agency for Information and External Security, to carry out information search activities and operations abroad. This is a green light for covert operations for Italian agents in foreign countries.
The amendment bears the signature of Adolfo Urso, a senator from the Brothers of Italy party, and Head of the Parliamentary Committee for the Security of the Republic. This is a body within the Italian Senate, tasked with surveying and monitoring the activities of Italian intelligence agencies.
Il Messaggero explained that “it is a new era for the intelligence, after the Italian Senate approved an amendment that promises to revolutionize the intelligence sector. Italian intelligence agents have always been able to gather information and carry out missions in some countries considered strategic for Rome, such as Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.”
On 30 August 2008 former Italy Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi signed a Treaty of Friendship with late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi. It confessed to and apologized for the damages suffered by the Libyan people during the period of Italian colonialism. The Treaty was seen to have improved bilateral relations, by stabilizing cooperation in a wide range of sectors.
Notably, the founder of a far-right Italian party and frontrunner to be the country’s next leader, Giorgia Meloni reiterated calls for an anti-migrant naval blockade on Libya.
Meloni said during an electoral rally in Mestre that the blockade will be implemented by an EU-led mission, in agreement with Libyan authorities. “Borders must be defended. What we want to do is a European mission to deal with Libya and stop departures,” she noted.
She called for opening hotspots managed by the international community in Africa, redistributing refugees in the European Union, and sending back irregular immigrants.