ROME, Apr 14: Italy has moved to suspend its defence agreement with Israel amidst escalating tensions in West Asia, said Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni today.
“In consideration of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” she told reporters during her visit to a wine festival in Verona.
The two nations, who signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2003 under the premiership of former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, established a joint framework for structured, long-term bilateral defence and military cooperation, ratified in 2005. The MoU focused on joint military training, arms trade, research and development, and industrial partnerships, with automatic five-year renewals.
The Italian public has been heavily against Israel since last year, denouncing the IDF’s actions in Gaza during its war with Hamas, with public opinion turning particularly sour after an Italian flotilla bound for the enclave was intercepted by the Israeli military.
While politically, Rome has been supportive of Jerusalem’s actions in September, Meloni under public pressure due to the growing anti-Israeli sentiment in Italy, said at the UN that Rome will back some of European Union’s sanctions against Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip, saying that some of the IDF’s actions had crossed a line “violating humanitarian norms, causing a slaughter of civilians”.
During the US-Israel war against Iran, Italy refused to allow some US aircraft headed to West Asia on a combat mission to land at its Sigonella base, a Defence Ministry and Italian media said.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has nonetheless downplayed the significance of Italian PM Meloni’s announcement that Rome would “suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel”, stating it won’t compromise Israeli defence.
“We have no security agreement with Italy,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, adding “We have a memorandum of understanding from many years ago that has never contained any substantive content. This will not affect Israel’s security.”
(UNI)
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