Trump says Italy's Meloni lacks 'courage' on Iran war

Rome: US President Donald Trump criticised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for her unwillingness to help in the Iran war, in an interview published Tuesday.

"I'm shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong," he said of his political ally in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.

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Meloni, Italy's far-right leader since October 2022, has been one of Trump's closest allies in Europe and often seeks to act as a mediator between diverging US and European views.

Trump said she did not want Italy to be involved in the war, which began with Israeli-US attacks on Iran, even though it gets much of its oil from the region.

The interview was published less than 24 hours after Meloni condemned as "unacceptable" Trump's criticism of Pope Leo XIV, after the pontiff's repeated calls for an end to the war in the Middle East.

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He told Corriere that it was she who was "unacceptable", alleging she did not care if Iran had a nuclear weapon.

The Corriere article was published in Italian but AFP obtained the original quote in English.