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Roundup: Italy calls for "urgent clarification" over alleged U.S. spy on PM

Xinhua, February 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Italian government on Wednesday called for "urgent clarification" from the United States, following media reports that former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would have been spied on by the American National Security Agency (NSA) in 2011.

"The wiretapping on a government allied to the U.S. would be unacceptable to us," Minister for Constitutional Reforms Maria Elena Boschi said while addressing the Lower House on the issue.

"An urgent clarification is needed," she added.

Boschi stressed a first step had already been taken on Tuesday, when the Italian Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to Italy John Phillips over the alleged wiretapping from the NSA.

During the meeting, Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry Michele Valensise "reaffirmed that Italy sincerely expects in a very short time clarifications about the (media) reports that have surfaced on the events that occurred in 2011," the ministry said in a statement.

Phillips "assured he will immediately refer the question to his superiors," and pointed out President Barack Obama banned eavesdropping on leaders of the United States' close friends and allies in 2014, the statement added.

Speaking to MPs, minister Boschi also declared the Italian cabinet would "further pursue the issue through all technical channels of cooperation, also with the United States."

Also on Wednesday, prosecutors in Rome opened a probe into the case, yet putting no one under investigation so far, local media said.

Citing classified documents published by WikiLeaks site, Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Tuesday reported a special unit of the NSA would have tapped Silvio Berlusconi and some of his closest associates in 2011, and in at least one occasion in 2010.

In that period, Berlusconi's centre-right government was facing a growing pressure because of the euro-zone debt crisis and of the several scandals and judicial probes in which the former PM was involved.

Berlusconi then resigned in Nov. 2011, and former EU Commissioner Mario Monti was appointed as his successor.

Among the closest aides allegedly tapped by the NSA were Berlusconi's personal aid, his national security advisor, and Italy's permanent representative to the NATO at the time, according to the reports.

Always citing a specific WikiLeaks file, La Repubblica also reported the NSA eavesdropped on communications between Berlusconi's aides related to a meeting between Berlusconi, then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Oct. 2011, in which the two European leaders voiced their concerns about Italy's financial crisis and put pressure on him to take urgent actions.

Finally, the NSA allegedly tapped a phone conversation between Berlusconi and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March 2010, at a time when U.S.-Israel relations were under strain and the Israeli PM was reaching out to European leader to help mend the ties with the major ally.

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