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Nato chief Mark Rutte has thrown Giorgia Meloni into a fresh political storm by revealing that Rome allowed “500 US planes” to take off from bases in Italy as part of the US-Israeli bombing of Iran.
President Donald Trump is furious with several European allies — including the Italian prime minister — over what he claims is their failure to provide sufficient support in the Middle East war.
But ahead of a meeting with Trump in Washington on Wednesday, Rutte pushed back against those claims, saying European Nato members such as Italy had quietly allowed the use of their bases, even if they avoided making a public show of it for domestic political reasons.
“Country after country, ally after ally after ally have made their bases available for Epic Fury,” Rutte told Fox News, suggesting that 4,000 to 5,000 planes had taken off from European bases as part of what Washington has dubbed Operation Epic Fury.
“If you look at Italy, 500 US planes took off from US bases in Italy to support Epic Fury,” he said. “This is massive.”
Rutte’s comments come as the secretary-general seeks to limit the damage to the alliance from Trump’s anger at European Nato allies over Iran, less than a fortnight before a summit of the military alliance’s 32 leaders.
The Trump administration last week launched a six-month review of its military presence in Europe — including the bases, weapons and troops that have protected the continent for eight decades — and has begun reducing some capabilities as part of its pivot to Asia.
The US maintains a network of dozens of military bases in Europe, including naval ports and troop garrisons. Nato officials argue that they are more important in supporting Washington’s operations in the Middle East than protecting European host nations.
“The American military’s ability to freely use bases in Europe for their global operations is the single biggest piece of leverage that we have to convince him not to leave us,” said one senior Nato military official.
Rutte’s public confirmation that the US used bases in Italy for Epic Fury follows a bitter weekend exchange between Trump and Meloni over the president’s anger at Rome’s alleged lack of support for Washington’s bombing campaign.
But the admission creates a significant domestic challenge for Meloni in Italy, where the use of bases on Italian soil for an unpopular bombing campaign is highly sensitive.
“It’s a political problem — the argument made by Rutte publicly raises the question of whether, how and how much the Italian bases have been involved in the US war in Iran,” said Alessandro Marrone, head of the defence and security programme at Rome’s Institute for International Affairs. “Meloni will have to answer this question, and she will have to be very careful and accurate in explaining what happened.”
In a statement after Rutte’s interview, Italy’s defence ministry said it was “surprising” that the Nato secretary-general, who was not directly involved in Epic Fury, was “presenting a reconstruction that conveys a completely misleading message by confusing the type of authorised flights”.
It said that “only technical and logistical, non-kinetic, activities were authorised within the procedures established by existing agreements”. It added: “Whenever a request outside this scope was submitted, as is well known, Italy has refused authorisation.”
Defence minister Guido Crosetto in March said Rome had refused to allow US warplanes bound for the Iran theatre to refuel at the Sigonella air base in Sicily, citing decade-old protocols governing the use of the base.
A few weeks later, Meloni told lawmakers that Italy “had neither supported nor participated in” the military operation against Iran.
Opposition parties are now demanding Meloni appear in parliament to clarify Italy’s role in the air campaign.
“Giorgia Meloni assured us that Italy would not be involved, yet we learned that at least 500 US aircraft took off from Italian soil, confirming the concerns we expressed in parliament,” said Giuseppe Provenzano, head of the foreign affairs committee of the opposition Democratic Party.
Angelo Bonelli, leader of the small leftwing party Green and Left Alliance, said Rutte’s televised claims were “extremely serious and expose Giorgia Meloni’s lies”, as he demanded a full explanation.
“The Italian government lied to parliament at the time, keeping 500 American flights hidden,” he said. “The fact is that Italy participated in the war against Iran, a crazy war . . . the severity of this matter is without precedent.”
Giuseppe Conte, leader of the populist opposition Five Star Movement, told reporters that “the government’s . . . fairy tales are crumbling”, while others suggested that the spat between Trump and Meloni over the weekend had also been a piece of political theatre designed to “cover up” Italy’s participation in the war without parliament’s authorisation.
Meloni’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Giuliana Ricozzi in Rome
