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Italy has slammed comments by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte regarding the use of US military bases in Italy during the conflict with Iran.
Responding to criticism from US President Donald Trump that NATO allies were not doing enough to support the United States, Rutte told Fox News in an interview on Wednesday that Europe serves as a key base from which the US projects its military power worldwide.
“Five hundred US planes took off from US bases in Italy to support (Operation) Epic Fury. So this is massive,” Rutte told the network ahead of an expected meeting with Trump.
He said there were 4,000 to 5,000 sorties by US planes from European bases during the conflict.
Following Rutte’s comment, Italy’s defence ministry said in a statement that Rutte’s words gave “a completely misleading message by confusing the type of flights that were authorised”.
The statement added that Italy had allowed only “technical and logistical” US flights during Epic Fury under existing agreements with the United States.
“On the occasions when a request was put forward that fell outside this scope, as is well known, Italy did not grant authorisation,” the statement said.
NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said Rutte’s comments were in fact about “logistics or technical support”.
Hart stated Rutte had “highlighted how Allies, including Italy, carried out their existing bilateral agreements in the context of basing and overflights”.
In recent months, Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have openly criticised each other after the US president criticised Italy for not helping the US action in Iran.
