EU country suspends defense agreement with Israel

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni criticizes Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced the suspension of a defense agreement with Israel amid tensions over the war in the Middle East.

Italy, whose right-wing government had been seen as one of Israel’s closest allies in the EU, has become increasingly critical of the ongoing military campaign in Lebanon, where 2,124 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since early March.

Speaking on Tuesday in Verona, Meloni said her government had decided to “suspend the automatic renewal” of the agreement “in light of the current situation.”

“When there are things we don’t agree with, we act accordingly,” Meloni said, according to Reuters.

The agreement, ratified in 2005 and previously renewed every five years, includes cooperation in the defense industry and procurement policy, military equipment imports and exports, technical data exchanges, and personnel training.

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Last week, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani summoned the Israeli ambassador to Rome, Jonathan Peled, after Israeli troops fired warning shots at an Italian peacekeeping convoy outside Beirut. Meloni described the incident as “completely unacceptable.”

On Monday, Tajani condemned the “unacceptable attacks by Israel against the civilian population” in Lebanon, to which the Israeli Foreign Ministry responded by summoning the Italian envoy.

Several European countries have formally recognized Palestinian statehood and imposed full or partial embargoes on weapons sales to Israel since 2023. Last year, Spain canceled a number of contracts with Israeli arms manufacturers reportedly totaling $1.18 billion. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described the Israeli campaign in Gaza as genocide, a claim Israel denied.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued that his country is “defending Europe” by waging wars against Iran, Hamas, and the Lebanon-based pro-Palestinian armed group Hezbollah. In a speech on Tuesday, Netanyahu accused European countries of “deep moral weakness” for not supporting Israel.