Italy is suffering after slapping an arms embargo on the UAE earlier this year as the Arab nation has decided to suspend military cocorperaton with the country and evict the Italian aircraft and other personnels from one of the major military bases in the nation.
The military base was an extremely important breakthrough for Italy to enter into the middle east for the decisions taken in January, the country is now suffering to regain the trust of the UAE. An Italian politician has confirmed that the country is preparing to withdraw military operators after the UAE gave them an ultimatum.
With the thing proceeding between the two countries, it has been brought into notice that it is the European country that has more to lose and not the UAE even with an arms embargo on itself. Italy has not only lost military cooperation but economic activities are also due to be affected with this.
Italy has been given time till July 2 to leave the Al Minhad air base in the UAE, confirmed the Italian parliamentary Matteo Perego Di Cremnago. While talking to a new outlet, the parliamentarian said, “The pull-out has already started and while work is underway by Italy to secure a last-minute cancellation of the eviction, I doubt it will succeed.”
He also talked about how difficult it is to get back on good terms with the Gulf countries once the relationship has become sour. Cremnago stressed that it is very difficult to break into the Gulf region. After his statement, the former Italian air force chief General Leonardo Tricarico confirmed that the last Italian aircraft left the UAE base on Thursday.
The Italian Ministry has denied speaking about the issue but the former chief said that the Gulf nation has also denied the use of its airspace to Italian military aircraft.
The base, which has been evicted by Italy, has been very crucial since the country negan using it in 2015. Al Minhad air base has aircraft from nations all around the world but for Italy, it has been helpful to mount fights over Iraq and other conflict prone areas.
With the eviction, Italy’s attempt to pull out from Afghanistan has also become an uphill task. It cannot rule out the possibility that danger is still lingering in Afghanistan and without any check, it cannot be radical enough to continue troop pullout from Afghanistan. Other than that, the Italian defense ministry has also been using the air base for quick reach for the operations in the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean but with this, the trade and job opportunities will be greatly impacted.
Cremngo was extremely disappointed at the call of the government in regards with the UAE saying that Italy will now have to bear the cost and will have to take responsibility for a huge geo-strategic loss. Italy had invested a lot in the base and hoped to expand its presence there,” he added.
source: Italian forces kicked out of Middle East base over UAE arms embargo, lawmaker says (yahoo.com)