United States President Donald Trump has launched a strong attack on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a key European ally, for what he perceives as her unwillingness to join a conflict against Iran.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Tuesday, Trump stated, \u201cI\u2019m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong.\u201d This criticism came shortly after Meloni condemned Trump\u2019s earlier remarks against Pope Leo XIV as \u201cunacceptable,\u201d following the pontiff\u2019s repeated calls for peace in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Trump further elaborated on his disapproval, claiming, \u201cShe\u2019s unacceptable because she doesn\u2019t mind that Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance.\u201d He also expressed disappointment, saying, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t want to help get rid of a nuclear-weaponed Iran. Very sad\u2026 She\u2019s much different than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meloni, who has led Italy since October 2022, was previously considered one of Trump\u2019s closest allies in Europe, often attempting to mediate between differing US and European perspectives. However, Trump indicated they had not spoken \u201cnot in a long time\u201d this month, adding, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t help us with NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
He went on to describe the NATO military alliance as a \u201cpaper tiger\u201d and criticized Europe generally for not being \u201cwilling to fight for the Hormuz Strait, which is where they get their energy.\u201d Trump concluded his remarks on Meloni by saying, \u201cShe\u2019s not the same person. Italy is not the same country. Immigration is killing Italy and all of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Italy, both allies and political opponents of Prime Minister Meloni swiftly offered their support.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani stated on X, \u201cWe are and remain staunch supporters of Western unity and steadfast allies of the United States, but this unity is built on mutual loyalty, respect, and honesty.\u201d He noted that while Trump previously considered Meloni courageous, \u201che was not mistaken, but she is a woman who never shies away from saying what she thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, condemned Trump\u2019s \u201cserious lack of respect,\u201d emphasizing in parliament, \u201cOur constitution is clear \u2013 Italy repudiates war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Separately on Tuesday, Italy announced the suspension of a defense agreement with Israel, which involves the exchange of military equipment and technology research. Meloni stated, according to Italian media, \u201cIn view of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel.\u201d This decision follows heightened tensions after the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian peacekeepers in Lebanon last week.<\/p>\n
#Trump #Meloni #Italy #USPolitics #InternationalRelations #Iran #NATO #MiddleEast #Diplomacy #EuropeanPolitics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United States President Donald Trump has launched a strong attack on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a key European ally, for what he perceives as her unwillingness to join a conflict against Iran. Trump’s Disappointment and Accusations In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Tuesday, Trump stated, \u201cI\u2019m shocked at her. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanak.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}