Italian lawmakers have exposed the deployment of jet fighters and radars by a key European ally of the United States to Saudi Arabia, forcing Rome to defend the move.
After lawmakers criticized Giorgia Meloni’s government for sending troops and military equipment to countries without parliamentary approval, Italy’s Defense Minister Guido Crosetto on Friday claimed the deployment was both “legal” and “transparent.”
Parliamentarians from the center-left Democratic Party insisted the non-transparent deployment is illegal because it was never approved by the country’s lawmakers. They pointed out that Saudi Arabia falls outside the scope of any existing mandate authorizing overseas military assignments for the Italian armed forces.
The lawmakers accused Italy’s right-wing prime minister, who leads the Brothers of Italy party and is reportedly eager to appease US President Donald Trump after he insulted her for refusing to support the unprovoked war on Iran, of deliberately avoiding parliamentary scrutiny for the deployment of troops and equipment to the Persian Gulf Arab state.
Crosetto rejected the opposition’s criticism of the deployment of troops and military assets to the Persian Gulf region. He claimed the military contingent’s operational framework had been fully disclosed to lawmakers.
Italy’s Defense Ministry website shows that a military contingent of around 400 Italian Air Force personnel has been deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain since March, after Tehran targeted US military assets in those states in legitimate retaliation following the US-Israeli imposed war on Iran.
The website lists air-defense radars and a counter-drone system among the assets sent. However, it makes no mention of a Franco-Italian SAMP/T air-defense system that the newspaper Il Giornale reported had also been transferred to Saudi Arabia.
Some of these SAMP/T units were previously deployed in Ukraine during Kiev’s war with Russia. France, for its part, has also stationed a SAMP/T unit in the United Arab Emirates in an effort to strengthen defenses against precise Iranian missile strikes.
The Italian contingent includes four Eurofighter jets, yet the ministry has declined to clarify their full mission in the region. Earlier this week, Il Giornale reported that some 700 Italian military personnel had been dispatched to the Persian Gulf.
Following Trump’s criticism of Meloni, Rome voiced support for the Arab Persian Gulf allies of the United States that came under Iranian retaliatory attacks after the unprovoked US-Israeli war on Iran. Officials in Rome claim the Arab Persian Gulf states requested air-defense and counter-drone systems from the Italian military.
In April, Meloni visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, becoming the first European leader to travel to the Arab Persian Gulf states after the US-Israeli-imposed war on Tehran. This includes the criminal attack of February 28 that martyred the late Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, at the outset of the 40-day war, as well as the ongoing tensions caused by the illegal American military presence and adventurism across West Asia, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.
