(Adnkronos) – Italy’s “longstanding relations” with its ally the United States are not in “crisis” after president Donald Trump attacked premier Giorgia Meloni for calling his recent criticism of Pope Leo unacceptable and for not backing the US-Israel war against Iran, according to foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
“I don’t think it’s a crisis. There are differences of opinion. These are long-standing relations,” Tajani said on Wednesday at a press conference in Berlin where he attended a fundraising conference for war-stricken Sudan.
Tajani was referring to an interview Trump gave to leading Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Tuesday that berated Meloni for failing to join the US in attacking Iran, saying “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong” and “she doesn’t want to help us in the war”. “I am shocked,” Trump stated.
Meloni, the only European leader invited to Trump’s second inauguration, who has enjoyed strong ties with him and was expected to be Europe’s bridge to his administration, has not directly responded to Trump’s attack.
‘We believe in the North Atlantic Alliance, we believe in transatlantic relations, we are friends of the US. But being friends also means being frank as well as loyal,” said Tajani.
The ties that bind the Nato members “goes far beyond a debate on an issue on which we disagree,” Tajani continued.
“We did not agree on Greenland,” Tajani said, referring to Trump’s contested push to take control of the Danish territory.
“And we do not agree on what was said about Pope Leo, who is a key instrument for peace,” Tajani added.
Trump lashed out at Leo in a Truth Social post on Sunday, calling him “weak”, “terrible” on crime and foreign policy issues after the pope’s condemnation of the US-Israel war on Iran and launched a fresh jibe at the pontiff on Wednesday.
