By Crispian Balmer<\/p>\n
ROME, May 8 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday and afterwards questioned why allies including Italy were not backing Washington’s efforts to confront Iran and re-open the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
“I don’t understand why anybody would not be \u200csupportive,” Rubio told reporters, adding that countries needed “something more than just strongly worded statements” if they opposed Iran’s actions.<\/p>\n
Rubio was wrapping up a two-day trip \u200caimed at easing ties with Pope Leo after attacks on the pontiff by President Donald Trump, while also addressing Washington’s frustration over Italy’s refusal to support the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.<\/p>\n
Meloni had been one \u200bof Trump’s firmest allies in Europe, cultivating close ties with him and presenting herself as a natural bridge between Washington and other EU states that had no natural political affinity with the Republican U.S. leader.<\/p>\n
But that alignment has come under increasing strain in recent months, as the Iran war has forced her to balance loyalty to the United States against Italian public animosity to the war and the growing economic cost of the conflict.<\/p>\n
‘FRANK’ MEETING<\/p>\n
Meloni and Rubio met for 1-1\/2 hours, in what she later described to reporters in \u200cMilan as a “certainly frank” discussion between countries willing to defend \u2060their national interest while valuing the transatlantic partnership.<\/p>\n
An Italian official, who asked not to be named, said talks focused on issues including the Middle East, the situation in Libya and also in Lebanon, where Rome has soldiers deployed as part of the UNIFIL peacekeeping \u2060mission.<\/p>\n
The official added Meloni was “very direct and clear” during her talks with Rubio, as Italy – highly dependent on energy imports – grapples with the surge in global fuel prices triggered by the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n
Rubio declined to give full details. However, he warned that Tehran’s claim to control access to Hormuz risked setting a dangerous precedent.<\/p>\n
“The fundamental question every country, not just Italy … needs \u200bto \u200bask themselves is, are you going to normalise a country claiming to control an international waterway? \u200bBecause if you normalise that, you’ve set a precedent that’s going \u200cto get repeated in a dozen other places,” he said.<\/p>\n
Italy and other European allies have said they would be willing to help keep the strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ends, but have refused to be drawn into direct confrontation with Iran.<\/p>\n
‘THE UNITED STATES NEEDS EUROPE AND ITALY’<\/p>\n
Before seeing Meloni, Rubio met Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said he hoped the visit had helped calm tensions with the United States.<\/p>\n
“I am convinced Europe needs America, Italy needs America, but also that the United States needs Europe and Italy,” Tajani told reporters.<\/p>\n
Besides the war in the Gulf, Meloni also said she discussed with Rubio Russia’s war on Ukraine and \u200cTrump’s visit to China next week.<\/p>\n
The Italians were also keen for a readout on Rubio’s meetings \u200bat the Vatican. Trump’s recent attacks on Pope Leo crossed a sensitive line in overwhelmingly Catholic \u200bItaly and prompted Meloni to call them “unacceptable”.<\/p>\n
Her criticism in turn drew a sharp \u200brebuke from Trump, who said she lacked courage. He subsequently threatened to withdraw U.S. troops from Italy.<\/p>\n
Rubio said he didn’t get into \u200cspecifics about U.S. bases, saying it was a decision for Trump \u200bto make.<\/p>\n
Italy last month refused to allow \u200bU.S. aircraft to use the Sigonella air base in Sicily for combat operations linked to the Iran conflict. Italian officials said Washington had not sought prior authorisation from Rome for the use of the site.<\/p>\n
Rubio did not mention this incident, but pointed to Spain’s decision not to allow its bases or airspace \u200bto be used to attack Iran. He said one \u200cof the main attractions of NATO for the U.S. was to have forces in Europe that could be swiftly deployed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“Now that’s no longer \u200bthe case, at least when it comes to some NATO members, that’s a problem and has to be examined,” he said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer, \u200badditional reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Alex Richardson, William Maclean and Mark Potter)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Crispian Balmer ROME, May 8 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Prime Minister Giorgia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[325,1155,5,7135,1761,3378,10715,1841],"class_list":{"0":"post-14593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-italy","8":"tag-giorgia-meloni","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-italy","11":"tag-marco-rubio","12":"tag-pope-leo","13":"tag-president-donald-trump","14":"tag-rubio-russia","15":"tag-washington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}