The 17 Billion Euro Cover-Up

Dear Blog Readers –

There never seems to be a dull moment in Rome. I don’t know if it is the weather, the food, the history, the art or the fact that the Pope is here, but all the movers and shakers of the world have a habit of stopping by rather regularly. Over the years I have covered everyone from Aung San Suu Kyi to Condoleeza Rice, President Obama to President Putin and many more. I have also covered my share of Iranian leaders.

I covered Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s tense visit to Italy in 1999 when a protester threw red paint on his official car. I covered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in 2008 where he held a press conference and ranted about the West.

Well this week we had Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Rome and the atmosphere was very different. Rouhani’s was supposed to visit Rome and Paris in November and then the trip was canceled after the terror attacks in Paris and then rescheduled for this past week.

Rouhani’s visit came on the heels of the historic nuclear deal with the US and he seemed as though he was running a victory lap around Europe, offering up lucrative economic agreements and foreign policy advice.

No red paint on the car this time, instead a red carpet and some covered statues. The Italian government was so eager to please the Iranian leader that they boxed up statues lining the corridor that the Iranian President took to meet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

The two men spoke in front of the famous Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. Apparently there was even some discussion regarding the horse’s private parts and the Italians decided to have them speak at the side of the statue to avoid a clear shot of the horse’s you know what.

When photos and videos of the cover-up were released, all hell broke loose. Italian commentators berated the government and comics went wild.   Many declared the Italian government had engaged in “cultural submission” and the cover-up was “shameful.”

One of my favorites was Italian comic Maurizio Crozza. In a hilarious stand-up routine he said:

“Today the President of Iran arrived. He personifies the 21^st century, so much so that today he had us cover with huge white boxes Roman statues from 2000 years ago that were copies of Greek statues from 2600 years ago, and why is that? Because they represent NUDE BODIES! So, the Capitoline Venus was turned into an IKEA shoe cabinet….the man was offended by a pair of tits that are 2600 years old!!…but this man, whatever his hang-ups might be, it not a refugee, no he is a man who is providing 17 billion euros in investments for Italian businesses…. “

And that seemed to sum it up. Italy was willing to do a little cover-up in order to get their business deals locked up in a hurry.

When asked a few days later about this “cover-up” at a press conference in Rome, Rouhani insisted the Iranians had not requested the cover up but he added, “I know the Italians are very hospitable people, a people who try to do the most to put their guests at ease and I thank you for this.”

Indeed the Italians are hospitable (or would that be spineless) , clearly more than the French. Last November the French reportedly chose to scrap a Rouhani meal with President Francois Hollande at the Élysée Palace after the Iranians asked for wine not to be served. No wine was served at the official meals for Rouhani during his Rome visit.

Since Rouhani departed everyone seemed to be trying to cover his or her own backside and find a fall guy for the statue affair.

In the desperate attempt to find a scapegoat, several newspapers tossed the blame on Ilva Sapora, the Head of Ceremony for the Prime Minister’s office. Others pointed fingers at a young Foreign Service officer working in the Italian Foreign Ministry in Rome.

Italy’s Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini– who took Rouhani for a tour of the Coliseum– said, “I think there easily would have been other ways to not offend an important foreign guest without this incomprehensible choice of covering up the statues.”  He said both he and Renzi knew nothing about it.

While Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is ducking the blame on this one, there is apparently a precedent. When the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi visited Renzi at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence last October, the Prime Minister’s office made sure a statue on display by American artist Jeffrey Koons was covered up.

Apparently the Iranians and others had a field day on twitter:

I was not covering the “cover-up” event but did follow Rouhani’s visit to the Vatican. After my attempts at being a camerawoman at the White House last September (see Blog post: Hacks in Black On the Papal Plane with Pope Francis) , I had to step in when one of our cameramen had serious eye difficulties earlier this week and film Rouhani’s arrival at the Vatican. The welcoming committee of Swiss Guards, Vatican Gentlemen and Monsignors were sufficiently covered up to meet approval by everyone.

Pope Francis has been a big supporter of the nuclear deal. According to a statement, the Pope encouraged the Iranian leader to “foster adequate political solutions to the issues plaguing the Middle East, fighting the spread of terrorism and arms trafficking.”

I also covered Rouhani’s lengthy press conference before he left. I was fascinated by many of his comments on global affairs. Unlike Ahmadinejad, I found Rouhani to be smooth in dealing with the press and easy handled a wide variety of questions. Although I obviously did not agree with him on many points, I found him intellectually sophisticated and clearly knowledgeable. Here are a few key nuggets:

In response to a question on recent tensions with Saudia Arabia following the execution of a Shiite Cleric:

“We know that Saudi Arabia has plans in the region, and they have failed and they are angry….Saudi Arabia was following its goals in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, and has not been able to achieve those goals so it is angry and taking out its anger on us….in Persian we say that a person needs to drink some cool water and calm down, so Saudi Arabia needs to find other way to calm down so its anger will subside.”

On a question about doing business with the US and US sanctions:

“For just a small thing, the people of the US Congress get together and put new sanctions on Iran…the era of sanctions is over. I hope that we will have more sensible people in the US Congress…in the US, there are some problems. There is no unified voice, we can see right now there are differences between the Congress and the US Administration…”

Rouhani also said that the Pope and he had agreed that freedom of expression does not mean insulting “what is sacred to other people’s faith.”

He said:

“both of us condemned action of the sort and terrorism is condemned by us, and also insulting others is condemned. The Pope gave me an example about this. He said that if people come to you and insult your mother, are you going to like it? No, you are going to react to this.”

He seemed to be referring to the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Pope Francis condemned the attacks on Charlie Hebdo but has suggested in the past that people should not insult the faith of others.

And if Rouhani wasn’t enough for one week in Rome,  we had a surprise visitor at the Vatican on Thursday. Leonardo Di Caprio showed up for a private meeting with the Pope to discuss their mutual concerns about the environment.

As far as I know, no one covered up any statues for Di Caprio.