Furious Meloni pulls out of Israel defense deal | Political News

Italy suspended a defense cooperation deal with Israel as tensions between Rome, Washington, and Tel Aviv surge.

In current weeks, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticized Israel’s assaults on Lebanon, which have killed a whole lot and injured hundreds.

“When there are things we don’t agree ⁠with, we act accordingly,” Meloni told reporters in Verona, northern Italy.

“In ​light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defense agreement with ​Israel,” she added.

According to GWN, Meloni made the choice on Monday with her overseas and defense ministers, Antonio Tajani and Guido Crosetto, as nicely as Deputy Prime Minister ​Matteo Salvini.

“We have no security agreement with Italy. We have a memorandum of understanding from ‌many years ⁠ago that has never contained any substantive content. This will not affect Israel’s security,” Israel’s overseas ministry said in a assertion.

The announcement got here minutes after Donald Trump launched an assault on Meloni, accusing her of missing “courage” to help the U.S. with its ongoing army operation in the Middle East.

Meloni described Trump’s tirade against the Pope as “unacceptable.” Now the U.S. president said it’s “she who is unacceptable.”

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Trump also said he was “shocked” by the Italian PM’s feedback. He went on to issue a stark warning over Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

“It is she who is unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance,” he said.

“She is no longer the same person, and Italy will not be the same country.” Trump added that he had not had contact with Meloni “for a long time”.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” the president wrote in his post about the Pope, including: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”

Trump refused to apologize to Pope Leo on Monday – and he sought to clarify away a now-deleted social media post depicting himself as Jesus by saying he had thought the image was of him as a doctor.

Trump was requested about his feedback toward the US-born head of the Catholic Church, as nicely as the post depicting him as a saint-like healer, in a swiftly called question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House.

“He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result,” Trump said, including: “I think he’s very weak on crime and other things, so I’m not going to apologize.”