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FM AMEMBASSY ROME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7877
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
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RUEHMIL/AMCONSUL MILAN PRIORITY 8596
RUEHNP/AMCONSUL NAPLES PRIORITY 2503

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 000899 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PM/RSAT AND NEA/I 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/01/2017 
TAGS: PREL MARR MAS MOPS PTER IZ IT
SUBJECT: ITALIAN PARTICIPATION IN THE IRAQ COALITION 
 
REF: A) STATE 55436 B) STATE 54925 C) ROME 705 
 
ROME 00000899  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified By: Classified by Jonathan R. Cohen, Acting Political Minist 
er Counselor, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C/NF) Summary. Although Italy withdrew its troop presence 
from Iraq in late 2006, Italy remains a committed partner in 
the political and economic development of Iraq through its 
PRT presence in Dhi Qar and its participation in the Iraq 
Compact and NTM-I.  Italian political realities make it 
highly unlikely that Italy would once again deploy military 
forces to Iraq to participate in coalition operations.  The 
Center-Left government won last year's national elections in 
part by promising a full withdrawal of military forces from 
Iraq.  Since the election, the radical-pacifist left, which 
strongly opposed the Iraq war, has increased its influence in 
the government.  PM Prodi, who depends heavily on the left 
for his razor-thin Senate majority, would find it politically 
impossible to reverse his decision to withdraw Italian troops 
from Iraq.  We continue to explore options for expanding 
political and economic support for Iraq with the GOI.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (C/NF) Although the current government campaigned on its 
promise to withdraw military forces from Iraq, it has pledged 
to continue to help the political and economic development of 
the country.  Italy's contributions to Iraqi stability are 
outlined below: 
 
PRT Presence in Dhi Qar 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3. (C/NF) For political purposes, the Italian presence in Dhi 
Qar province is officially known as a Reconstruction Support 
Unit (URS).  In reality, it continues to function as PRT. 
The URS is home to over a dozen reconstruction experts 
focused on developing local governance capacity and financing 
environmental development projects.  Italy has also 
encouraged the European Union and UNDP to consider using its 
PRT as a mechanism for the distribution of their assistance 
projects. 
 
Iraq Compact and Debt Reduction 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Italian Parliament allocated an additional 30 
million Euros for Iraqi reconstruction on March 27.  In 
January 2007, Italy and Iraq signed a cooperation treaty 
providing a soft credit line of 400 million Euros (Ref D). 
Finally, according to Ambassador Martino, chief of the Iraq 
Task Force at the MFA and former Italian Ambassador in 
Baghdad, roughly 70 million Euros in unexpended funds remains 
in the pipeline from earlier aid packages.  Italy has 
canceled 80 percent of outstanding Iraqi debt, amounting to 
about 2.4 billion Euros.  Again according to Martino, Italy 
would be unlikely to do more at present.  He offered that 
additional funds were not particularly needed, but rather 
expertise for capacity building.  He described Italian 
efforts via the Dhi Qar PRT to build economic literacy, 
noting that knowledge of computer skills and business 
planning were woefully lacking.  Warming to the subject, 
Martino argued that too many Iraqi decision-makers were 
waiting for some event to spark them into action.  In the 
case of market reform, attempts to deconstruct the still 
existing command economy received ample lip service, while 
the responsible officials said they had to wait for the 
Compact before actually making any changes.  (Note: Martino 
will accompany FM D'Alema to the Iraq Compact meeting in 
Egypt.  End Note.) 
 
Italy Remains Committed to NTM-I 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Italy, with approximately 32 troops at Ar 
Rustamiyah, remains committed to teaching 3 out of the 4 
modules being offered by the NTM-I and to increasing their 
participation by adding a gendarmeri/carabinieri-type module 
pending SHAPE's recommendation (current Italian plans 
 
ROME 00000899  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
estimate an additional 40 carabinieri would be sent to Iraq 
to lead this module).  The Italian parliament recently passed 
the foreign affairs budget which included a 1 million Euro 
earmark for the NTM-I Trustfund as well as additional funding 
to cover related "life-support" costs. 
 
Lessons Learned Conference 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶6. (SBU) In late May or early June, Italy intends to host a 
Lessons Learned Conference in Rome to discuss the successful 
transition of security responsibilities to Iraqi authorities, 
use of PRTs as a tool in distributing and monitoring 
assistance, and increasing linkages between the Iraq Compact 
and PRTs (ref c). 
SPOGLI