Italy Blocks US Military Access to Sigonella Base Amid Escalating Middle East Conflict

Italy's Defence Minister Guido Crosetto denied the United States permission to use the Sigonella air base in Sicily for aircraft bound for the Middle East, in a significant diplomatic incident confirmed by informed sources to the Italian news agency ANSA on Tuesday. The refusal came after Chief of Defence Staff Luciano Portolano was notified by the Air Force General Staff that several US aircraft had filed a flight plan calling for landings at Sigonella followed by onward departures toward the Middle East. The plan was communicated to Italian authorities while the aircraft were already airborne, with no prior request for authorization and no consultation with Italian military leadership. Initial checks established that the flights were not normal or logistical in nature and therefore fell outside the scope of the existing bilateral treaty governing US use of military bases on Italian soil. Portolano, acting on direct orders from Crosetto, then informed the US Command that the aircraft could not land at Sigonella.

Parliamentary pledge shaped Crosetto's decision to refuse The refusal was grounded in a commitment Crosetto had previously made before the Italian parliament. The minister had stated that any operation not covered by existing treaties and therefore requiring separate authorization would be brought before the chambers for approval. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Crosetto had both made clear, following the start of the war in the Middle East, that US forces could continue to use Italian bases for normal operations in accordance with the bilateral treaty, but that any use beyond that scope would require parliamentary authorization. According to source articles, the aircraft in question carried a so-called "caveat" designation, meaning they were not permitted to land at the base unless an emergency arose. The Italian Ministry of Defence had not clarified, as of Tuesday, the exact date on which the incident occurred, with sources describing it only as having taken place "a few days ago."

„The plan had in fact been communicated while the aircraft were already in flight” — Corriere della Sera via La Stampa

The Sigonella air base in Sicily has been a focal point of US-Italian military relations for decades. The most prominent precedent for friction at the base dates to October 1985, when then-Prime Minister Bettino Craxi refused to hand over a Palestinian militant commando to US forces under President Ronald Reagan, following the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. That standoff, which involved Italian and US soldiers facing each other on the runway with weapons drawn, became a defining episode of Italian sovereignty in the context of the NATO alliance. The current incident has drawn comparisons to that 1985 crisis, with both episodes separated by 41 years and both involving Italy asserting its authority over the use of the Sicilian base against US demands.

Spain closed airspace to US war aircraft, drawing Trump's threats Italy is not the only NATO ally to have pushed back against US military operations connected to the Iran conflict. According to reporting by El País cited in source articles, the Spanish government ordered the closure of its airspace to all US aircraft participating in the war in Iran. Madrid went further than Rome, refusing not only the use of the Spanish air bases at Rota in Cádiz and Morón de la Frontera in Seville but also denying overflight rights to US fighters based in third European countries. The Spanish refusal generated a direct confrontation with US President Donald Trump, who reportedly threatened to impose a trade embargo on Spain. Madrid did not reverse course in response to those threats, according to source articles. The parallel actions by Italy and Spain mark a notable pattern of European NATO members asserting limits on their participation in the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

Iran war context: blockade, missiles, and a disputed nuclear standoff The broader conflict that prompted the Sigonella incident began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel carried out coordinated strikes against Iranian territory, according to source articles. Iran subsequently launched missile and drone attacks against Israel, US bases, and infrastructure in a range of regional countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman, and Iraq, as reported by Notícias ao Minuto. Iran also imposed a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world's oil supply passes, according to the same source. The US-Israeli offensive was justified, according to source articles, by Iran's refusal to compromise in negotiations over uranium enrichment as part of its nuclear programme, which Tehran has maintained is intended exclusively for civilian purposes. The Italian refusal to allow Sigonella to serve as a staging point adds a layer of diplomatic complexity to the alliance management challenges facing Washington as the conflict continues.