When in Rome do as the Romans do!
Intricacies of Applied Diplomacy

H. Hakimi
Oslo, 2003

After some two and half years in Baghdad with utmost displeasure Mr. Aram our Foreign Minister assigned me to Rome as Consul General attached to our Embassy. I had passed through Italy few times before but never long enough to have learnt enough about Italian way of living or about how the Italian public or private institutions functioned. Therefore I considered myself a novice.

Few weeks after my arrival one of the most prestigious evening news papers called Couriera Della Sera came out with a big headline covering the entire length of the front page reading “Rob & Plunder”! The paper in a long extensive article said :”It is a false assumption to think that our national sport is football. It is not. It is in reality thievery, embezzlement, cheating, misappropriation of the government assets, mismanagement of our private and public institutions” and so on.

To my amazement there was no denial of this accusation. Neither was there any comment about this article and its humiliating tone from any part of the government or the public or other papers. The accusation of the Couriera Dells Sera was taken in stride by everyone in as a matter of fact manner and did not seem to have shocked anyone.

At the time there was a big scandal concerning ENI, one of the biggest if not the most important national company. The paper had referred to this ugly affair accusing a good number of the Italian government officials of embezzlement and gross mismanagement.

After reading this article I became preoccupied with this thought: how on earth was I going to safeguard the interest of our nationals residing or passing through in such a country as Italy? I decided that I had to be vigilant and be on my guard constantly to be able to carry out my responsibility in this lawless chaotic corner of Europe, and the land of Mafiosi, in their own words, not mine. The more I dug into the Italian social behavior the more I was convinced that adhering to conventional consular practice would lead to absolute disadvantage of my compatriots.

Within a week or two I had the pleasure of receiving Mrs. Panahi an Iranian lady in my office. She recently had lost her husband, an agricultural expert working for FAO (Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), to cancer. She informed me that along with her two children she was going to Tehran, in order to settle the affairs of her late husband. Upon my enquiry about her means of travel, she said they were planning to travel via the land route taking their small car with her young son as the driver! I did my best to dissuade her knowing how dangerous the roads were and encourage her to go by air. I informed her extensively about the perils of using the dangerous Yugoslavian roads, which was known as the Road to Death among Iranians. There were numerous fatal accidents on that road, especially between Zagreb and Belgrade.

But my advice had fallen on deaf ears as a few days later I got a telephone call from our Embassy in Belgrade informing me that the lady and her son had been killed on the road to Belgrade. Her little daughter who had survived the accident was sent to Teheran by air accompanied by one of the Embassy’s staff. I felt terribly sad and depressed.

The family had constructed a villa in Euro, a close suburb of Rome with the financial help of FAO as well as a mortgage from an Italian Bank. The building had two floors; the upper one was rented to one of their Canadian colleagues from FAO. I took along Mr. Abdullah Khosrovi the Embassy accountant. We drove to the deceased’s home to inform the Canadian tenant of the events and to take complete inventory of their belongings as it was common consular practice.

I asked the Canadian tenant to try and find a suitable tenant for the furnished ground floor flat amongst their colleagues in FAO. He gladly promised to do his best. I enquired from the Canadian gentleman about the financial situation of the family with regard to the funds they had loaned from FAO. He informed me that the family’s debt to FAO was paid. He added that there was nothing to worry from FAO. The only concern was a mortgage on the building with an Italian Bank. The value of the mortgage small and was ordinarily not significant as a proportion of the value of the property.

Two or three days later I had three Italian gentlemen in my office. Two of them were from the Panahis’ lending bank and the third was the bank’s lawyer. They opened the subject of the demise of the proprietor of the building and said that according to the Italian Law, since the person who has mortgaged the building has passed away, the bank was hitherto repossessing the property and would take over the building to settle the loan.

Though we have the same law in our own country, but knowing the Italian style of business I was terribly angry. I was sure that the building would be auctioned at a fraction its value to one of the bank’s directors with the result that the little girl would never get a penny from these scoundrels.

I pleaded with them to reconsider their claim on humanitarian grounds and for the sake of the little child, bearing in mind that the monthly repayment had been paid to the bank regularly. They refused my plea. I informed them that in that case I had to do my duty and safeguard the interests and rights of a minor in the best way I could.

After they left my office I called Antonio the Embassy’s security guard to my office. Antonio was a decommissioned army sergeant who had been a tank driver in the army. We had developed a special relationship. Antonio liked and appreciated my openness, honesty and style of work.

I asked Antonio whether he had kept the brass plate of Consulate General of Iran, after the Chancery of the Embassy moved to the same premises as us. His answer was affirmative. I asked him to clean and polish the brass plate. Then he was to bring it along with his tool box to my office as soon as possible. He was to assist me with a special task. In few minutes Antonio was in my office with all the necessary equipment. I asked him to accompany me and we drove to Mrs. Panahi’s house. Together we fixed the polished brass plate on right side of the entrance to the building.

Antonio was quite puzzled. Upon our return to Rome I explained the reason behind fixing the Consulate’s brass plate at the gate of Ms. Panahi’s home which was to give it diplomatic immunity and prevent the bank from repossessing the building. Antonio roared with laughter and proceeded to hug and kiss me out of admiration.

I immediately informed the Canadian tenant about my conversation with the bank’s representatives and my remedy. He just laughed and thought it was a clever idea and would stop the scoundrels dead in their tracks.

After three days I had the same Italian men from the bank in my office with red faces demanding the removal of the brass plate of the Consulate General from that property. I replied that we had just rented the building for the use of the Consulate General! Was there any thing wrong? They stormed out of my office.

I later learnt from the Canadian tenant that earlier the bank officials accompanied by two police officers had been there to seal off the building, but the moment the police officers saw the Consulate’s brass plate, they refused to proceed and the bank officials had no choice but to leave as well.

After a little while the Canadian gentleman informed me that one of his FAO colleagues was interested to rent the ground floor. I requested that if possible if he and the new tenant could advance at least six months rent which amounted to a large portion of the mortgage could be repaid at once. They both agreed without hesitation. The monies paid left the bank with almost nothing to claim. It took another six months to fully repay the mortgage. In this very unconventional way the rights of a minor were safeguarded.

The day the mortgage was fully settled and I got the final receipt from the bank, together with Antonio we went to Ms. Panahi’s house and took the big consular brass plate off. 

As to the little girl, I was tremendously happy to hear form my school friend Mr. Bahadori, Private Secretary to the Shahbanou (Queen) of Iran, that Her Majesty had personally taken guardianship of the little Panahi girl. 

I never explained or revealed the manner by which I had handled the Panhi affair to my Ambassador or to any of my colleagues. Only Antonio knew the secret and he was good at keeping his mouth shut.