{"id":326062,"date":"2026-04-15T07:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326062"},"modified":"2026-04-16T05:06:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T05:06:30","slug":"italys-meloni-suspends-defence-cooperation-deal-with-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=326062","title":{"rendered":"Italy&#8217;s Meloni suspends defence cooperation deal with Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Angelo Amante and Alvise Armellini \u2013 Reuters April 14, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Rome has criticised Israel&#8217;s attacks on Lebanon<\/li>\n<li>Tension with Israel rose after shots near Italian troops<\/li>\n<li>Israel says Rome&#8217;s move will have no practical effect<\/li>\n<li>Meloni distances herself from both Israel and Trump<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ROME, April 14 (Reuters) &#8211; Italy&#8217;s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday her government had suspended a \u200cdefence cooperation deal with Israel, reflecting frayed ties between previously close allies as the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/iran\/\" data-testid=\"Link\">conflicts in the Middle East<\/a>\u00a0continue.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni&#8217;s right-wing government has been one of Israel&#8217;s closest friends in Europe, but in recent weeks it has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/aerospace-defense\/italy-summons-israeli-ambassador-after-shots-fired-un-lebanon-2026-04-08\/\" data-testid=\"Link\">criticised its attacks<\/a>\u00a0on Lebanon, which have killed \u200bhundreds and injured thousands<\/p>\n<p>Israel also fired warning shots last week at Italian troops serving in Lebanon under \u200ba U.N. mandate, causing damage to a vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When there are things we don&#8217;t agree \u2060with, we act accordingly,&#8221; Meloni told reporters on the sidelines of a wine fair in Verona, northern Italy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In \u200blight of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with \u200bIsrael,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>Meloni&#8217;s announcement marked another diplomatic realignment for her right-wing government, coming a day after she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/europe\/italy-rallies-round-pope-trump-attack-tests-ties-with-meloni-2026-04-13\/\" data-testid=\"Link\">criticised another close ally<\/a>, U.S. President Donald Trump, for his attacks on Pope Leo.<\/p>\n<p>A source close to the matter, who requested anonymity, said Meloni took the decision on \u200bMonday with her foreign and defence ministers, Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto, as well as Deputy Prime Minister \u200bMatteo Salvini.<\/p>\n<p>Israel&#8217;s foreign ministry played down the consequences.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have no security agreement with Italy. We have a memorandum of understanding from \u200cmany years \u2060ago that has never contained any substantive content. This will not affect Israel&#8217;s security,&#8221; it said in a statement.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MELONI CHANGES TACK<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Meloni has been in power since 2022 and will face a general election by late 2027.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a repositioning,&#8221; Lorenzo Castellani, political historian at Rome&#8217;s Luiss University, told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s afraid that a sizeable portion of the electorate, \u200beven among the centre-right, will \u200bbecome highly critical of \u2060Trump and Netanyahu and of the effects of this war on Iran on the economy,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Italy&#8217;s opposition parties had long called for a stop to the \u200bdeal with Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Signed in 2003 by the government of then Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the \u200bmemorandum entered into force \u2060in 2006 and was subject to automatic renewals every five years unless one of the parties withdraws.<\/p>\n<p>It spans fields including procurement, training and the &#8220;import, export and transit of defence and military equipment&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As diplomatic tensions have risen, Rome last week \u2060summoned the \u200bIsraeli ambassador to protest over the incident involving Italian troops in \u200bLebanon. Then on Monday, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned the Italian ambassador &#8220;to discuss the situation in Lebanon&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/aerospace-defense\/italy-suspends-defence-cooperation-deal-with-israel-2026-04-14\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meloni&#8217;s right-wing government has been one of Israel&#8217;s closest friends in Europe. Will other western governments follow her lead? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":259265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326063,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326062\/revisions\/326063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/259265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}