Chapter 843: International Response
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"We are armed Palestinian commandos, and now we have control of the Italian cruise ship Akilai Lauren, with a total of 413 passengers and crew on board, all of whom are our hostages, and we hope that Israel will release the 50 Palestinians who were captured during the last demonstration and imprisoned in Israeli prisons, including Rantisi, who are innocent. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½{{}}ā
The radio signal sent back by the cruise ship Aguil-Lauren shocked the world.
Terrorists, hijacked a cruise ship, hoping that Israel will accede to their demands!
After receiving this news, the first person to react was the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Yasser Arafat. Arafat made it abundantly clear that malicious attacks on civilian targets, including the use of innocent civilians as hostages to a Government, are acts of terror at any time.
If you do that, you will be opposed by the whole world, and you will not help Palestine at all, but only harm Palestine and make Palestine even more isolated by the world. In particular, there were not a few Jews on the cruise ship they hijacked, and they did this in an attempt to internationalize the Palestinian issue? This bunch of idiots!
Fifteen minutes after receiving this information, Arafat issued a statement strongly condemning this atrocity, saying that the kidnapping of civilians as hostages should never have happened, and hoped that these armed men would recognize the situation, proceed from the overall situation, lay down their arms and surrender, unconditionally release all hostages, and state that the PLO had nothing to do with the incident. {{}}
Half an hour after Arafat's speech, various Palestinian armed groups, such as the Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestine Liberation Front, declared that their organizations had nothing to do with the incident and demanded the immediate release of the hostages.
The terrorists are Palestinians, however, they are definitely not planned by any Palestinian organization and have nothing to do with them!
Subsequently, Egypt as the host. A statement was also issued, after all, the ship was hijacked in Egyptian waters, and Egypt is also responsible.
The spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Defense strongly condemned the hijacking and hoped that the tragedy would end as soon as possible without bloodshed. And, in conclusion, he said that the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in the region is the best guarantee for an end to all violence and counter-violence.
Egypt has no intention of using force, but only hopes to put enough pressure on the terrorists to make them aware of the situation. Surrender on your own initiative.
But. The other two countries don't think so.
One of them, is Italy.
Palestinian. It's a mad dog! These are the exact words of the Italian Prime Minister Claxy, if you want Israel to release the hostages, then simply hijack the Israeli ships. Why hijack an Italian cruise ship!
However, since the bullying has been brought to Italy, then Italy will never let go of the terrorists, if Israel rejects the terrorists' proposal, and if the terrorists dare to attack the hostages, then Italy will use force to rescue the hostages!
Italy in Europe. Although it is not a very powerful country, it is also one of the three members of the former Axis powers, and it also has a strong sense of national glory. {{}}
The only weakness is that, until now, all the Italian troops, including the special forces. None of them have been specifically trained in counter-terrorist attacks, because, now, they are still training in dealing with large-scale wars, but in later generations. When large-scale wars are no longer possible, terrorist attacks. But it has become a test that has to be faced.
In this regard, Qusay is the most forward-looking, and his special forces have already begun training against terrorist attacks.
Even so, Italy cannot show weakness! After urgent consultations, the Minister of Defence, Spadolini, had ordered the troops stationed in Sicily to be brought to "first level of combat readiness" at a time when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a sternly condemned demand that the terrorists must release the hostages unconditionally. If necessary, they will act by force!
And another country that has been even more touched is the United States!
When it was learned that the Akilai had been hijacked, the United States convened an emergency meeting because there were twelve Americans on board.
"Now that the Italian cruise ship has been hijacked, this is a vicious incident, and we need to respond with the right attitude and absolutely not allow this terrorist act to spread. {{}}," Secretary of State George said.
The United States has a deep understanding of this kind of hostage-taking, starting from the hostage incident at the Iranian embassy to the civil airliner, in every incident, there are always Americans who suffer!
The first incident, because the United States did not deal with it in a timely manner, led to President Carter's final disgraceful resignation, and the second time, the United States acted quickly, but McFarlane still completed the task with the help of the Iraqis.
"Is the identity of the hijacker clear?" President Reagan asked.
"Egypt was very cooperative, we investigated the information of all the passengers on the cruise ship, and among them, there were four Palestinians, the most suspicious, who were the main force of this terrorist attack." William said.
"Which Palestinian armed group are they?" Bush asked. This kind of incident will definitely not be something that a few ordinary Palestinians can do, so there must be a tight organization behind them, could it be Arafat?
"We have checked and confirmed that they are not part of any of the existing Palestinian organizations until now. "But, as you know, the question of Palestine is very complicated, and there are five or six large organizations, and there are a lot of small armed groups, and maybe they don't belong to an existing Palestinian organization, maybe they are new organizations. In particular, the main purpose of their operation was to get the Israeli government to release Rantisi, and we suspect that Rantisi may well have secretly joined a newly created organization. ā
This was completely by mistake, and the reason why Rantisi was pushed out was because this was a leader of a regular demonstration held by Israel, and Israel did not know that Rantisi was preparing to jointly create the "Islam-Slan Resistance Movement" with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and other seven people, and the Mossad was crooked this time, which made the United States believe it even more.
The evidence is conclusive, and the other side has admitted it by itself, then it must be the Palestinians!
"This time, we need to use our own special forces to rescue our hostages! Resolve this crisis. Defense Secretary Weinberg said.
It has been a disgrace for the Delta Special Forces after the last failure to rescue the Iranian hostages, so they began to conduct this kind of training specifically, and now, five years later, the Delta Special Forces have formed a series of contingency plans that can be used to solve this kind of problem.
They need a successful operation to wash away their shame!
"Order our two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, both of which are close to the Egyptian coastline, and we need to be able to use force to solve the problem at a critical time." President Reagan said, "Our special forces, ready to go. ā
Although there is no intention to use force to solve the problem, it is still necessary to be prepared to do so, and it can come in handy when it is critical.
The United States, in absolute terms, will not bow to terrorists! This is the consistent style of the United States, and no matter what the real action is in the end, at least it has to do enough superficial work.
"This time, it depends on Israel's attitude, if Israel can release those prisoners, maybe the incident can be resolved smoothly." Secretary of State George continued.
After he said this, everyone knew what George really meant.
In the Middle East, Israel's existence is aimed at restraining the surrounding Arab countries, and now the facts have proved that the Arab countries are the birthplace of terrorists, and Israel's existence is very necessary for the United States.
This incident has made them realize that the US policy in the Middle East should be firm and unshakable, and that the United States needs checks and balances in the Middle East.
However, if Israel planted spies in the United States, and if this matter is over, and the United States resumes all kinds of exports to Israel, then the punishment is too light, right? Everyone knows that this incident will eventually pass, and the United States and Israel will resume their previous relations, which is determined by the interests of both countries after all, but this time, they all think, will be at least a year later.
Now, it's less than a month.
"Yes, it depends on Israel's attitude, but we also need to be prepared that we only believe in our own strength." President Reagan concluded.
President Reagan's words have a lot of meanings, and the answers he has given so far are still ambiguous.
If Israel does well enough, and if the propaganda is sufficient, it can still offset the recent bad effects, and at that time, the government will be free from the pressure of public opinion, and it will be easy to make decisions.
Qusay was in his office reviewing the documents when he saw Yured hurriedly walk in and said: "Your Excellency, there is a big incident in Egypt, an Italian cruise ship, shortly after its departure from Alexandria, Egypt, was kidnapped by four Palestinian militants, and took more than 400 civilians on board as hostages to blackmail the Israeli authorities to release a group of Palestinians in custody. ā
Qusay's face changed: "Is it the Akiler-Lauren?" ā
"President, you know everything?" Yured is very strange.