Rift between Italy and US, Israel widens over Iran war

Europe's unease with the war being waged on Iran by the United States and Israel became clearer this week, when Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni cited "the current situation" in the Middle East as the reason why her nation was suspending a military pact with Tel Aviv.

The move by a prime minister who has been seen in the past as a strong European supporter of Israel and of US President Donald Trump was the latest in a series of steps made by European leaders wanting to distance themselves from the conflict.

Meloni told reporters on Tuesday her government had "decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel in consideration of the current situation".

The agreement, which began in 2003, facilitated the sharing of military equipment and research and had been renewed every five years. But after Israel's conflict in Gaza and its recent attacks on Iran and Lebanon, human rights lawyers had urged Rome not to renew the arrangement for legal and ethical reasons.

The relationship between Italy and Israel has also been negatively impacted by Israel Defense Forces f iring warning shots in the direction of an Italian peacekeeping convoy near Beirut, Lebanon earlier this month, which Meloni described as "completely unacceptable" and that prompted Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to summon Israel's ambassador for a dressing-down.

Ties between the two countries also suffered when Israel stopped Italian religious leaders from the Catholic Church from holding a ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, to mark the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday. Meloni said the intervention amounted to "an offense to religious freedom".

She also criticized Trump recently for attacking Pope Leo XIV, after the pontiff spoke out against the war in Iran.

Meloni, like many other European leaders, has said repeatedly that Italian forces will not participate in attacks on Iran, or help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, which prompted Trump to say he was "shocked at her".

"I thought she had courage, but I was wrong," he said in an interview with Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday. "She's unacceptable because she doesn't mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance."

He went on to say Meloni "doesn't help us with NATO" and "doesn't want to help get rid of a nuclear-weaponed Iran".

"Very sad … She's much different than I thought," he added.

Trump has been infuriated with European leaders in general over their lack of participation in US and Israeli attacks on Iran and has called the NATO alliance a "paper tiger", even though the alliance is mandated to be defensive, not offensive, in nature.