REUTERS, Rome

The Iran war has put US global leadership on the line, Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said, expressing fear about the “madness” of nuclear escalation.

Like some other Nato allies reluctant to join US President Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran, Italy last week denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily en route to the Middle East.

“This war is also putting the United States at risk in its global leadership,” Crosetto told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published yesterday.

Crosetto, a close ally of Italian PM Giorgia Meloni who has a good ties with Trump, said he worried the conflict could take an even worse turn and cited the 1945 US nuclear bombings of Japan in World War Two.

“Just think: it was human beings like us who decided that even Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acceptable means of ending a conflict. Unfortunately, we still possess nuclear weapons, and those who do not have them are seeking to acquire them. We have learnt nothing,” he said.

“The risk is madness, and what we are experiencing is a conflict in which every action triggers a reaction at a higher level”.