Italy has suspended the automatic renewal of its defence co-operation agreement with Israel, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on April 14, in Rome's sharpest signal yet of disapproval over Israeli military operations, while separately rebuking US President Donald Trump for his attacks on Pope Leo XIV.

Meloni made the announcement at the Vinitaly wine fair in Verona, telling reporters that "in light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel." Defence Minister Guido Crosetto had formally communicated the decision to his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, by letter.

The memorandum, originally signed under former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2003 and ratified in 2005, provides a framework for bilateral co-operation on defence matters including military equipment exchanges, joint exercises, and research and development in the defence sector. It had been renewed automatically every five years, most recently entering into force on April 13.

Israel's foreign ministry played down the significance of the move. A spokesman said the two countries did not have a security agreement as such, describing the memorandum as one that had "never had any concrete content."

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, also present at Vinitaly, said he agreed with the suspension but told reporters he did not know the reasons behind it.

The decision marks a significant hardening of Italy's stance. Until now Meloni's government had limited itself to condemning specific Israeli actions, including strikes on churches and attacks on Italian soldiers serving in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, while defending the memorandum itself against repeated opposition calls for its suspension. The diplomatic temperature had risen further in recent days after Italy's ambassador to Tel Aviv was summoned by the Israeli foreign ministry in protest at remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, who had condemned Israeli raids that have caused thousands of casualties in Lebanon since early March.

Italy's growing discomfort with Israeli military operations has been building for months. In September, Meloni told the United Nations that Israeli actions had crossed a line, "violating humanitarian norms, causing a slaughter of civilians," and signalled Rome's support for some European Union sanctions against Israel. During the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, Italy refused to allow American combat aircraft to use its Sigonella base in Sicily for missions to the Middle East.

Meloni used the Verona platform to address several other live political controversies. On Trump's social media broadside against Pope Leo XIV — in which the US president called the pontiff "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy," suggested he had been elected only because he was American, and told him to "get his act together" and "stop catering to the Radical Left" — Meloni, long regarded as a darling of the US leader, was unequivocal. "What I said is what I think: the statements about the pontiff were unacceptable. I express my solidarity with Pope Leo," she said.

Meloni also urged caution over recent calls by Eni chief executive Claudio Descalzi to resume purchasing Russian gas, acknowledging his commercial logic but arguing that economic pressure on the Kremlin remained "the most effective weapon we have for building peace." She expressed hope that the question would be moot by January 2027, when existing energy contracts expire, if progress had been made towards ending the war in Ukraine.

She also called for continued international efforts to advance peace negotiations to stabilise the situation in Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.