Meloni Accuses NATO Chief Rutte of Muddled Account on Italy's Role in Iran Conflict

ANTIBES, France — Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday accused NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte of giving a muddled account when he described her country as offering "massive" support to U.S.-Israeli attacks against Iran.

Responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's frustrations over whether NATO's European members are pulling their weight, Rutte told Fox News on Wednesday that Rome played a key role in the Iran war by allowing 500 U.S. military aircraft to use Italian air bases.

The interview triggered an immediate political storm for Meloni, with her opponents accusing her of having misled the public when she insisted Italy was staying out of the war and that Rome was allowing only logistical and technical operations at the U.S. bases in Italy.

Meloni pushed back on Thursday, saying Rutte was incorrectly implying that flights from Italy were used in direct attacks on Iran in his eagerness to convince Washington that NATO was playing a significant role.

"In his — let's call it enthusiastic — account, the secretary-general has lumped together things that are actually quite different from one another, confusing the types of authorized flights," Meloni told reporters during a Franco-Italian summit in southern France.

"We did not participate in the conflict with Iran. By the way, if we had participated in the Iran conflict, there would be no explanation for this disappointment that the U.S. president keeps reiterating very often," Meloni added.

The Italian prime minister has clashed with Trump over recent days, with the American president pointedly slamming her for refusing access to Italian bases for U.S. bombers.

She reiterated that Italy only allowed bases to be used for logistical and technical operations.

Meloni said she had no clue why Rutte gave this "oversimplified account."

"Probably it was an attempt to prepare in the best way the next NATO summit, but, in any case, I think one needs to be cautious when talking about these matters."

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart confirmed Rutte's comments were in fact about "logistics or technical support" and that he had "highlighted how allies, including Italy, carried out their existing bilateral agreements in the context of basing and overflights."

On Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani discussed the matter with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Meloni said the Iranian authorities "understood that there has been a misunderstanding."

Victor Jack contributed to this report from Brussels.