First Spain, now France and Italy... France has blocked the United States from using its airspace to transport American weapons to be used in the war against Iran, a Western diplomat and two additional sources told Reuters Tuesday.
"The sources said the refusal, which happened at the weekend, was the first time France had done this since the start of the conflict in Iran," Reuters has underscored.
On the same day reports are emerging that Italy has denied the US military use of an airbase in Sicily - another rare first, though the Italian government is saying it's primarily a matter of the Pentagon not following through on required authorization protocol.
A statement from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sought to calm the situation with Washington, denying that "critical issues or frictions" with international partners were unfolding, and saying that relations with the US remain "solid and based on full and loyal cooperation".
Still, France and Spain are feeling Trump's wrath, who issued the following in a Tuesday morning Truth Social post:
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has confirmed that "some US bombers" were denied landing at Sigonella – one of seven US navy bases in Italy. The complaint is that the US didn't follow required permission protocol, and requested landing only while in the air and already en route to Sicily.
The statement from Meloni’s office had also alluded to matters of procedure, stating that Italy is "acting in full compliance with existing international agreements" - while underscoring that each request must be "carefully examined on a case-by-case basis, as has always been the case in the past."
But the truth also is that American hegemonic action in the Middle East, and the Iran conflict in particular, is deeply unpopular among the Italian population, which has long had a strongly anti-war bent especially among the youth.
The Guardian writes, "The unpopularity of Trump in Italy has also started to erode the popularity of Meloni, who is ideologically in tune with the US president and has established good working relations with him." However, she's lately sought to distance her government from the war, having told parliament earlier this month there's a growing dangerous trend of interventions "outside the scope of international law."
Bilateral defense agreements and NATO's base sharing framework allows US access to key strategic hubs for US operations in the Mediterranean - however, Italian law and the aforementioned treaty requires parliamentary approval for anything outside that scope. This has provided a political 'out' for Meloni to be able to say the government is just following the law in denying certain US plane landings.