Rubio perplexed by allies’ lack of support on Iran

• Demands more than just ‘strongly worded statements’, warns against yielding international waters to Iran
• Trump weighs response to allies blocking base access
• Riyadh keeps bases open, prohibits their use for Hormuz operations

ROME: Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned on Friday why US allies, including Italy, were not backing Washington’s efforts to confront Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, following a frank meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

“I don’t understand why anybody would not be supportive,” Rubio told reporters, adding that countries needed “something more than just strongly worded statements” if they opposed Iran’s actions.

Rubio was wrapping up a short, two-day trip aimed 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 US-Israeli war on Iran.

Meloni had been one of Trump’s firmest allies in Europe, cultivating close ties with him and presenting herself as a natural bridge between Washington and other EU states.

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.

Meloni and Rubio met for an hour and a half in what she later described to reporters in Milan as a “certainly frank” discussion between countries willing to defend their national interests while valuing the transatlantic partnership.

Rubio warned that Tehran’s claim to control access to Hormuz risked setting a dangerous precedent.

“The fundamental question every country, not just Italy, needs to ask themselves is, are you going to normalise a country claiming to control an international waterway?” he said. “Because if you normalise that, you’ve set a precedent that’s going to get repeated in a dozen other places.”

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.

Trump has yet to decide how to respond to some allies denying the US military the use of their bases in its war on Iran, Rubio said on Friday.

Trump has threatened to pull US troops from Italy and Spain due to their opposition to the Iran war, with Madrid notably refusing to allow the use of its bases.

“If one of the main reasons why the US is in Nato is the ability to have forces deployed in Europe that we could project to other contingencies, and now that’s no longer the case, at least when it comes to some Nato members, that’s a problem, and it has to be examined,” Rubio told reporters.

He said that “ultimately that’s a decision for the president to make”, adding: “He hasn’t made those decisions yet.”

Meanwhile, US forces have access to Saudi airspace and bases despite being told not to use them for the now-suspended operation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, two Saudi sources said on Friday.

Earlier this week, Trump announced a pause in the two-day-old “Project Freedom” to guide ships through the Strait, after a flare-up with Iran strained a fragile ceasefire.

US media reports on Thursday said Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman talked directly to Trump and refused to let US forces use Saudi airspace and bases for the operation.

However, two Saudi sources said on Friday US access to its airspace and bases continues for other uses.

“Saudi Arabia was against the operation because it felt it would just escalate the situation and would not work,” one of them told reporters.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2026