Italy’s prime minister has distanced herself from America’s and Israel’s intervention in Iran, accepting that “we cannot afford an ayatollah regime in possession of nuclear weapons” while also condemning some of the early, dire consequences of the conflict.
Speaking in the Italian Senate on Wednesday, Giorgia Meloni, who is often described as Europe’s ‘bridge-builder’ with Donald Trump, said quite clearly that “Italy is not participating and has no intention of participating.”
We are not at war, and we do not want to be at war.
Meloni added that while the U.S. has not yet requested to use its military bases for strikes on Iran, such a request, were it to be made, would depend on agreements already in place—that is, would be based solely on international law.
Her stance is far more coherent than those of some other European leaders—not least UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who earlier this month flip-flopped on the use of British bases by America to attack Iran.
Meloni’s position has also received the approval of Italian Senate members.
The prime minister also on Wednesday expressed “firm condemnation of the massacre of girls at the school in Minab, southern Iran,” which was hit by a missile strike early in the war. Tehran says the U.S. and Israel were behind this blast. Trump has pointed the finger in the opposite direction while saying Washington is investigating. “Responsibility for this tragedy,” said Meloni, must be “swiftly ascertained.”
But she has also stressed that Rome is providing air-defence assets to Gulf countries hit by Iranian strikes, “not only because these are friendly nations and strategic partners of Italy, but also because there are tens of thousands of Italian citizens in that area whom we must protect, not to mention the fact that there are about 2,000 Italian soldiers stationed in the Gulf.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
