Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said there have been no discussions or formal requests from the United States regarding the use of the country’s military facilities.
PM Meloni stated Italy intends to send defensive aid to the Gulf as geopolitical tensions rise following the coordinated US-Israeli strikes on Iran and the subsequent retaliation by Tehran.
Earlier, Australia’s PMAnthony Albanesesaid military assets have been deployed to the Middle East as part of “contingency planning." The remarks come as unrest ripples through West Asia with the US-Israel war onIranescalating after recent strikes and retaliatory threats.
The conflict in the region continues to widen, with missile and drone exchanges, sending West Asia into one of its most volatile crises in decades.
Iran directed fresh missile attacks towards Israel, while Jerusalem struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. A US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, marking a dramatic escalation in the sea.
In retaliation, the Iranian forces struck a US tanker in the Gulf, said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Iranian state media said the US ship is currently on fire. However, the casualties are yet to be ascertained.
On Thursday, Iranian state television aired a message from an ayatollah in Iran, calling for the “shedding" of blood from US President Donald Trump and Israelis.
The message came from Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli. “We are now on the verge of a great test and we must be careful to fully preserve this unity, to fully preserve this alliance," he said in the statement.
The cleric also called for “the shedding of Zionist blood, the shedding of Trump’s blood."
On February 28, Israel and the United States started coordinated attacks against Iran, amid stalled negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Source: World News in news18.com, World Latest News, World News
