Italy Suspends Defense Cooperation Deal With Israel as Trump Turns on Meloni

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday her government had suspended a defense cooperation deal with Israel, reflecting frayed ties between previously close allies as the conflicts in the Middle East continue.

Meloni‘s right-wing government has been one of Israel‘s closest friends in Europe, but in recent weeks it has criticized its attacks on the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which have killed hundreds and injured thousands.

Israel also fired warning shots last week at Italian troops serving in Lebanon under a UN mandate, causing damage to a vehicle.

“When there are things we don’t agree with, we act accordingly,” Meloni told reporters on the sidelines of a wine fair in Verona, northern Italy.

“In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” she added.

Meloni‘s announcement marked another diplomatic realignment for her right-wing government, coming a day after she criticized another close ally, US President Donald Trump, for his attacks on Pope Leo.

A source close to the matter, who requested anonymity, said Meloni took the decision on Monday with her foreign and defense ministers, Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

Israel‘s foreign ministry played down the consequences.

“We have no security agreement with Italy. We have a memorandum of understanding from many years ago that has never contained any substantive content. This will not affect Israel‘s security,” it said in a statement.

MELONI CHANGES TACK

Meloni has been in power since 2022 and will face a general election by late 2027.

“It’s a repositioning,” Lorenzo Castellani, political historian at Rome’s Luiss University, told Reuters.

“She’s afraid that a sizeable portion of the electorate, even among the center-right, will become highly critical of Trump and Netanyahu and of the effects of this war on Iran on the economy,” he added, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,

Italy’s opposition parties had long called for a stop to the deal with Israel.

Signed in 2003 by the government of then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the memorandum entered into force in 2006 and was subject to automatic renewals every five years unless one of the parties withdraws.

It spans fields including procurement, training and the “import, export, and transit of defense and military equipment.”

As diplomatic tensions have risen, Rome last week summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest over the incident involving Italian troops in Lebanon. Then on Monday, Netanyahu’s government summoned the Italian ambassador “to discuss the situation in Lebanon.”

TRUMP TURNS ON MELONI

Meanwhile, Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday that Meloni lacks courage and has let Washington down.

Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she distanced herself from him after he went to war with Iran in February, and on Monday she openly criticized him for lashing out at Pope Leo, saying his verbal assault was “unacceptable.”

Trump responded in an interview with Corriere della Sera, saying Meloni was “very different from what I thought” and denouncing her for refusing to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iran.

“I’m shocked by her. I thought she had courage. I was wrong,” he was quoted as saying in the Italian-language article.

The White House declined to comment on the reported quotes. Meloni‘s office also declined to comment, but politicians of all stripes rallied to her defense, including Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, head of the coalition Forza Italia party.

“We are, and will remain, sincere supporters of Western unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but that unity is built on loyalty, respect, and mutual frankness,” he said, applauding Meloni for denouncing Trump‘s attack on the pope.

Trump‘s criticism marked a dramatic change in tone toward Meloni, the only European leader to attend his inauguration in 2025 and whom he had hailed as “a ​great leader” just one month ago.

On Tuesday he accused her of failing to back US efforts to tackle Iran’s nuclear program and guarantee energy flows through the Gulf, saying she wanted America “to do the job for her.”

Asked about her condemnation of his comments on Pope Leo, he said: “She is the one who is unacceptable, because she does not care whether Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow Italy up in two minutes if it had the chance.”

The reprimand capped a tumultuous month for Meloni, who lost a crunch referendum on judicial reform in March and then saw her political ally Viktor Orban ousted from power in Hungary.

The US-Israeli war in the Gulf threatens to upend the economy with surging energy costs and is hugely unpopular with Italians, putting Meloni on a collision course with Trump.

Seeking to distance herself from the conflict, she refused to let US fighters use an airbase in Sicily for combat operations in Iran last month, before suspending the military cooperation pact with Israel this week.

Trump said the surge in energy prices should have encouraged Italy, which is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports, to help re-open the Strait of Hormuz.

“They pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz … They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,” Trump said.