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Italy not to set foot in Syria: FM

Xinhua, November 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Italy will put "no boots" on the ground in Syria, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Thursday.

"We are ready to help our French brothers, but we will not carry out any mission on the ground in Syria," Gentiloni told state RAI TV Agora program.

Any intervention of this sort from France or the United States was also most unlikely to happen, according to the minister.

"I believe no one will put boots on the ground in Syria: neither France nor the United States, nor us. We are all fully aware the possible way out of the Syrian crisis is political, including France, that is part of the group working on this issue," the foreign minister said.

"We have no need to repeat the mistakes already made in Iraq and Libya," he said.

In the wake of last Friday's terror attacks that left 129 people dead and at least 350 injured in Paris, France asked the European Union (EU) to activate the mutual defense clause of the Lisbon Treaty in order to receive support for its operations against Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria and Iraq.

The provision reads that "if an EU member state is the victim of an armed aggression on its territory, the other member states shall have an obligation towards it regarding aid and assistance."

It was the first time such a clause had been called in EU history, and EU partners unanimously agreed to the French request.

Italy pledged its close cooperation, and defense minister Roberta Pinotti earlier this week said Italy was already planning to increase the number of its troops currently engaged in a training mission in Iraq.

"We are significantly raising the number of our trainers, as the coalition asked us to do," Pinotti said on Tuesday.

Italian troops would be brought to 750 from 500, with a specific decree being now discussed in the Italian parliament, Pinotti explained.

Yet, the defense minister ruled out Italy's participation in the air campaign on IS targets in Syria, which France decided to step up after the deadly Paris attacks.

"France's request for support is a political request and there are many areas for close cooperation," Pinotti said.

"Fighting against terrorism does not mean military action only, but also cutting financial support to IS, putting an end to the Syrian civil war, as well as increasing investigation and intelligence." Endit