On Wednesday, just as Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni was leaving Riyadh and its oil monarch, Salman, for the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition struck a market in Sa’ada in northern Yemen, killing 29 people, including many children.
This would be the perfect opportunity for Italy to distance itself from the war currently happening there, which is fueling the conflict between Sunnis and Shiites and is met with general indifference elsewhere — but instead, we are deliberately maintaining a loud silence. And this time, such a statement is clearly not speculation.
We know this because a few days ago, before Gentiloni’s departure, Amnesty International Italy, represented by its director general, Gianni Rufini, sent a detailed dossier to the prime minister, so that he might take the opportunity of his visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar “to raise the issue of human rights violations in the three Gulf countries, and, more generally, to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in the context of the bilateral diplomatic relations between Italy and these three countries.”