\n<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s decision to suspend a defence agreement with Israel has more symbolic value than concrete consequences, but it is an unprecedented move by the Italian government and reflects deep unease over its longtime ally\u2019s actions in the Middle East, analysts say.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy would not renew a memorandum of understanding \u2013 signed in 2003 and ratified in 2005 \u2013 between the two countries\u2019 ministries of defence. The accord provided a framework for cooperation in \u201cdefence industry and procurement policy\u201d and \u201cimport, export and transit of defence and military equipment\u201d, among other things.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The memorandum was set to automatically renew every five years \u201cunless a written notice of intention to denounce is given\u201d by one of the two countries to the other.<\/p>\n That notice arrived on Monday in a letter written by Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz.<\/p>\n The Israeli government has downplayed the move. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was a deal that \u201cnever materialised\u201d and did not have \u201csubstantial content\u201d. \u201cIsrael\u2019s security will not be harmed,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n It is true that the Italy-Israel agreement constituted more of a political framework than a series of operational commitments between the two countries. Furthermore, the Italian government\u2019s decision does not cancel it outright, as opposition parties and human rights advocates have long demanded, but merely suspends it.<\/p>\n Still, the move is a sharp reversal for a right-wing government that has been one of Europe\u2019s staunchest allies of Israel. <\/span><\/p>\n Along with Germany, Italy has been one of the strongest opponents of calls to suspend a trade agreement between Israel and the European Union. Italy has largely supported Israel\u2019s war on Gaza, which a United Nations inquiry says amounts to genocide, and it has refused to recognise Palestinian statehood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But relations between Israel and Italy have soured recently.<\/p>\n On Monday, the Italian ambassador to Tel Aviv, Luca Ferrari, was summoned after Italy\u2019s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned Israel for its \u201cunacceptable attacks against the civilian population\u201d in Lebanon during a visit there. And last week, the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, prompting Tajani to summon the Israeli ambassador.<\/p>\n Israel also launched a massive attack across Lebanon last week, bombing 100 targets in 10 minutes on Wednesday, shortly after a two-week truce between Iran and the US was called. That series of strikes killed hundreds of people in one of the country\u2019s worst mass slaughters since the end of the country\u2019s civil war in 1990. Observers say the attack on Lebanon was an unwelcome disruptor to efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region.<\/p>\n The Italian government\u2019s decision to suspend its defence agreement with Israel \u201cmust be seen within a broader effort to progressively stabilise the region, including by reducing tensions in Lebanon\u201d, said Michele Valensise, president of the Institute for International Affairs and former secretary-general of Italy\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael\u2019s military operation there objectively constitutes an irritant, complicating negotiations with the Iranians,\u201d said Valensise. \u201cIf the Lebanese front can be part of a deal with Iran, then everyone has an interest in de-escalation there.\u201d<\/p>\n European governments, including Italy, have been watching nervously as the United States-Israeli war on Iran has unfolded. Following initial joint Israel-US strikes on Tehran on February 28, Iranian forces brought shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz to a near-total halt, causing the paralysis of the one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports that pass through the narrow waterway in peacetime.<\/p>\n Following a first failed round of high-stakes Iran-US talks in Islamabad last weekend \u2013 amid a fragile two-week truce \u2013 Washington imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, further aggravating fears of a protracted energy crisis. Italy heavily relies on gas imports.<\/p>\n Possibly more importantly, Italy\u2019s government and prime minister are preparing for elections next year.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a general discontent over the war in Iran and the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a crisis that\u2019s impacting Italian growth and, if it continues, could have a significant impact on citizens, something Meloni worries about in a pre-election year,\u201d said Arturo Varvelli, a political scientist and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.<\/p>\n Italian public opinion also has a strong pro-Palestinian component. Last October, more than two million Italians took to the streets as part of a general strike in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was intercepted by Israel while trying to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza. The flotilla had been carrying 40 Italians among its passengers, calling on Israel to \u201cstop the genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a concern that this will be a long agony, between an increasingly unmanageable Trump and the economic problems he and Netanyahu have caused with the war in the Middle East,\u201d Varvelli said.<\/p>\n After years of efforts to emerge as US President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cwhisperer\u201d in Europe, Meloni has been pushed by the war in Iran to put some distance between herself and Trump. Rome refused the US president\u2019s request to join a naval coalition to force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and to allow US bombers to refuel at a military base in southern Italy.<\/p>\n Trump had not commented on those decisions until yesterday, when, in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he took aim at Meloni. The Italian PM had leapt to defend Pope Leo XIV after he became embroiled in a feud with Trump. Pope Leo had condemned the US president\u2019s threat that Iran\u2019s \u201ccivilisation will die\u201d if it didn\u2019t re-open the Strait of Hormuz. In response to that, Trump unleashed a storm of criticism at Leo, calling him \u201cweak on crime\u201d and \u201cterrible for foreign policy\u201d. He said he does not \u201cwant a Pope who criticises the President of the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n Trump also posted a bizarre image of himself as a Christ-like figure healing the sick on social media. He has since claimed it was meant to depict him as a doctor, following widespread criticism.<\/p>\n Of Meloni, who he once affectionately called \u201ca real live wire\u201d, Trump said, \u201cI\u2019m shocked at her\u201d during an interview with Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cDo people like her? I can\u2019t believe it,\u201d he said in the interview, adding, \u201cI thought she had courage. I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Italy\u2019s decision to suspend a defence agreement with Israel has more symbolic value than concrete consequences, but it is an unprecedented move by the Italian government and reflects deep unease over its longtime ally\u2019s actions in the Middle East, analysts say. On Monday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Italy would not renew a memorandum of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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\u2018Stop the genocide\u2019<\/h2>\n
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