Story by Lazar Berman
Italy is suspending its defense agreement with Israel, says Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“In consideration of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with Israel,” she tells reporters as she visits a wine festival in Verona.
The 2003 Memorandum of Understanding was signed under Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, and set the stage for cooperation in defense and scientific research. The MoU was ratified by Italy in 2005, and is renewed automatically every five years.
As Italians have taken to the streets since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre en masse to denounce Israel, Meloni’s right-wing government has been under pressure over its position on the conflict.
In September, she said at the UN that Italy will back some European Union sanctions against Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip, saying that Israel’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 the Middle East on a combat mission to land at its Sigonella base, a Defense Ministry source and Italian media said.
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