By John Phillips
ROME
Italy is considering supplying arms to Iraqi Kurds "within two or three days" to help them battle the militant group calling itself the Islamic State, the Italian Defence Ministry said Tuesday.
Rome is planning to send to the Kurdish regional capital of Erbil as many as 23,000 AK-47s and several tonnes of Kalashnikov ammunition that the Italian military has been holding in store in the island of Sardinia since they were seized in 1994 during the Bosnian war, an officer from the Defence Ministry told the Anadolu Agency in a telephone interview.
“We are considering the options and this is one of them,” said the officer on condition of anonymity. “But of course first there has to be a political decision,” he said.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini and Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti will address a joint session of the Foreign and Defence Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on recent developments in Iraq and decisions taken by Italy at the extraordinary EU foreign ministers' meeting held Friday.
Italy may also send the Kurdish forces, known as peshmaga, "non lethal" equipment such as lasers, bullet-proof flak jackets, bomb disposal equipment and radio communication systems, defence ministry sources added.
Also under consideration is the dispatch of some older model Beretta and Browning machine guns and automatic weapons no longer in use with Italian armed forces if it is decided that they would be effective in Kurdish hands, the sources said.
Italy has already sent several planeloads of water, food and emergency supplies to the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq in recent days.
Pinotti earlier this week visited the arms depot in Sardinia where the AK-47s have been held for the past decade, military sources said.
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, the current rotating president of the Council of the European Union, says the need to curb the Islamic State advance in Iraq is an opportunity "to prove that the EU is not just about the bond yield spread and Maastricht criteria."
The reports that Rome considers arming Kurdish forces has been criticised, however, by the radical opposition 5 Star Movement party, headed by comedian Beppe Grillo. "Ministers Mogherini and Pinotto are playing at war in Iraq without having consulted Parliament," the party said in a statement.
"They should stop and report to Parliament, taking responsibility in front of the country," it added.
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