ANKARA, Turkey — Despite being singled out for sharp criticism by US President Donald Trump at the NATO Summit, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni doubled down on her government’s refusal to let Washington use bases for military operations in the war against Iran.
“For the bases, it’s not as though we’ve been changing course from one day to the next — we’ve had a very clear line since the beginning of the conflict in Iran, and we are maintaining that,” the prime minister told reporters on the closing night of the summit here in Ankara, after the US had restarted its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. “We are not participating in attacks against Iran, and we will not participate in attacks against Iran.”
In March, at the opening of hostilities, Rome reportedly denied a request from the US military to land an aircraft at the Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily before it was expected to fly to the Middle East.
The use of military infrastructure by American troops in Italy is governed by bilateral defense agreements established over 50 years ago that allow them to use certain facilities, but only under strict guidelines. Under Italian law, these are described as technical authorizations that grant permission for logistical purposes, generally pertain to non-kinetic activities, and are assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Italy has been among a list of European countries, including the UK, that have previously affirmed their refusal to be drawn into direct conflict with Tehran. In a Senate address on March 11, Meloni said that her country is “not at war, and we do not want to enter a war.”
Trump, however, has lambasted allied nations that rebuffed US requests related to the Iran war, saying they came up short when he was “testing” their loyalty.
“Italy turned us down, Germany turned us down, and France turned us down,” Trump said shortly after arriving in Ankara as part of a broadside against all of NATO. “Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars when they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them.” (Trump left the summit speaking much more fondly of the alliance.)
Meloni previously appeared to have one of the closest personal relationships with Trump among European leaders but has seen it sour in recent weeks. During the press conference, she played down the dust-up.
“No, I absolutely don’t regret anything I’ve done. I made a political investment because I believe in the unity of the West,” she said. “It is not a strategy I adopted with Donald Trump’s arrival, but one I have pursued with all of my counterparts. Clearly, there were and still are affinities with Trump, on certain political issues.”
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