Ahmadinejad’s trip to Italy to attend a meeting of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) faced with a wave of protest and disgust by Italian parties, organizations and media.
Corriere della Serra, the Italian daily wrote: Close the doors to Ahmadinejad!
Citing an unidentified diplomatic source, La Repubblica said that Ahmadinejad wanted to brief the Pope on his government’s position in current international disputes. The Iranian regime has made several efforts to enlist the help of the Holy See in its conflicts with the US and other Western powers.
The Italian paper said that Iran’s ambassador to the Holy See has put in a request “repeatedly” for a papal meeting with Ahmadinejad. The La Repubblica added that although Vatican has not made any official comment about Ahmadinejad’s request for meeting with Pope, but the thing that it has announced that all Pope’s schedule for visits during the conference were full, means that there would be no meeting between Ahmadinejad and Benedict the 16th.
The daily Il Reformista, referring to the Iranian regime’s support of the terrorist groups in Lebanon and Palestine, asked the Italian government and that country’s politicians to express their protest against the Iranian regime’s policies. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has already ruled out a bilateral meeting between him and Ahamdinejad.
