Rome, March 12 (UNI) Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticised the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, warning that the strikes reflect what she called a dangerous erosion of international law.
Speaking in the Italian Senate on Wednesday, Meloni said the conflict should be viewed within a broader breakdown of the international order.
“It is in this context of structural crisis in the international system… that we must also place the American and Israeli intervention against the Iranian regime,” she told lawmakers, adding that recent military actions pointed to an “evident crisis of international law”.
Meloni also condemned a deadly strike on a school in the southern Iranian city of Minab that reportedly killed at least 170 people, most of them children, with the Italian leader terming the incident as a “massacre of little girls”, which she said called for an investigation.
Some US media outlets have suggested the school may have been hit by a US Tomahawk missile, a claim President Donald Trump has rejected and shifted onto Iranian forces.
Her remarks are notable given Meloni’s reputation as one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe. She was the only European leader to attend his inauguration in January 2025, and Trump later described her as “a fantastic leader”.
The criticism also reflects growing unease within Italy about the expanding conflict, as there is strong public opposition in Rome towards joining the war in any way, amid the damage that Italy and the rest of Europe are already suffering in the wake of the Russia–Ukraine war.
Meanwhile, Meloni herself is preparing for a high-stakes referendum on judicial reforms.
Italy was also reportedly not among the European allies informed in advance of the strikes, a point seized upon by opposition figures. Former prime minister Matteo Renzi also dismissed claims that Meloni acts as a diplomatic “bridge” between Washington and Europe.
The ongoing conflict has highlighted several broad divisions between the US and European, as many leaders in the continent have actively condemned the joint Tel Aviv-Washington assault on Tehran.
Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez has been probably the most vocal critic of the strikes, calling them “reckless and illegal”, prompting Trump to threaten trade retaliation, while France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said the attacks were carried out “outside the framework of international law”.
