Italy Defends Gulf Troop Deployment
PHOTO CAPTION: FILE PHOTO: Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto addresses the Parliament, saying the country will send a second navy ship to escort the Global Sumud Flotilla heading to Gaza trying to deliver supplies, in Rome, Italy, September 25, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
ROME, July 31 — Italy’s defense minister rejected opposition criticism Friday over the deployment of troops and military equipment to the Gulf, saying the mission’s legal and operational framework had been fully disclosed to parliament.
About 400 Italian Air Force personnel have been deployed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain since March, according to the Defense Ministry’s website.
The deployment followed Iranian attacks on those countries after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
The Italian contingent includes four Eurofighter jets assigned to help defend designated airspace, although the ministry has not disclosed complete operational details.
Lawmakers from the center-left Democratic Party accused the government of failing to seek parliamentary authorization for the mission. They argued that Saudi Arabia was outside the scope of a previously approved mandate for overseas military deployments.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, rejected the criticism.
Crosetto said the mission’s “legal and operational framework” had been presented “with the utmost transparency.”
“The information was already public and available,” Crosetto said in a statement. “In fact, it took only a journalist consulting the Defence Ministry’s website to accurately reconstruct what some opposition representatives claim not to know.”
Italian newspaper Il Giornale brought renewed attention to the country’s Gulf presence this week, reporting that as many as 700 troops had been deployed to the region.
Meloni’s government expressed support for Gulf partners after they came under Iranian retaliatory attacks following the U.S.-Israeli assault.
The government said countries in the region had requested Italian air-defense and counter-drone support.
The Defense Ministry’s website lists air-defense radar equipment and a counter-drone system among the deployed assets.
The website does not mention a Franco-Italian SAMP/T air-defense system that Il Giornale reported had also been sent to Saudi Arabia.
SAMP/T units have been transferred to Ukraine in recent years and exported to Singapore. France delivered one of the systems to the United Arab Emirates earlier this year to strengthen its defenses against Iranian missile attacks.
Meloni traveled to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in April, becoming the first European leader to visit the Gulf after the conflict began.
(Source: Reuters)
