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Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
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Italian Prime Minister Meloni Meets with Trump at His Florida Resort

A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)
A handout picture made available by the Chigi Palace (Palazzo Chigi) Press Office shows Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (R) meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Mar-a-Lago resort, Palm Beach, Florida, USA, 04 January 2025 (issued 05 January 2025). (EPA/ Filippo Attili/ Chigi Palace Press Office Handout)

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni flew to Florida to meet with President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, as the key European leader sought to buttress ties with Trump before his inauguration on Jan. 20.

Members of Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort welcomed Meloni with applause after an introduction by the president-elect, according to videos shared on social media by reporters and others.

Her trip comes days before she is to meet US President Joe Biden during a visit to Rome from Thursday to Jan. 12. Trump defeated Biden in the November election and is preparing to return to the White House.

While no details of their meeting have been disclosed, Meloni had planned to talk with Trump about Russia's war in Ukraine, trade issues, the Middle East and the plight of an Italian journalist detained in Tehran, according to Italian media reports.

Meloni's office declined to comment on the reports.

She is seen as a potentially strong partner for Trump given her conservative credentials and the stability of the right-wing coalition she heads in Italy. She has also forged a close relationship with billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk, a close Trump ally who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help him win the election.

"This is very exciting. I'm here with a fantastic woman, the prime minister of Italy," Trump told the Mar-a-Lago crowd, according to a media pool report. "She’s really taken Europe by storm."

Trump and Meloni then sat down for a screening of a documentary questioning the criminal investigations and legal scrutiny faced by John Eastman, a former Trump lawyer who was central to Trump's unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

One of the biggest challenges facing Meloni is the arrest of Italian journalist Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19.

Sala was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan's Malpensa airport on a US warrant for allegedly supplying drone parts that Washington says were used in a 2023 attack that killed three US service members near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

On Friday, Iran's foreign ministry summoned Italy's ambassador over Abedini's detention, Iranian state media reported.

Meloni became the latest in the handful of foreign leaders who have visited Trump in Florida since the Nov. 5 election. He has met with Argentinian President Javier Milei, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

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Israel Says No Foreign Courts Have Warrants Issued against Reservists

Israeli military vehicles operate on a base near the border to Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles operate on a base near the border to Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israel Says No Foreign Courts Have Warrants Issued against Reservists

Israeli military vehicles operate on a base near the border to Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)
Israeli military vehicles operate on a base near the border to Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel, January 7, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel said on Tuesday pressure groups were pushing foreign courts to take action against Israelis over alleged war crimes in Gaza but described the actions as "propaganda activity" and said no warrants had been issued.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

The warrants sparked outrage in Israel but also drew fears that similar warrants could be issued against Israelis who served in the military in Gaza.

On Sunday, an Israeli reservist on holiday in Brazil left the country after a Brazilian federal judge in Salvador ordered police to open an investigation into allegations that he had committed war crimes while serving with the military in Gaza.

The Hind Rajab Foundation, the pro-Palestinian group which brought the action, says on its website it "focuses on offensive legal action against perpetrators, accomplices and inciters of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine."

The Belgium-based group, named after a Palestinian girl killed in Gaza last year, also said it had filed evidence of alleged war crimes with the ICC against 1,000 Israelis, including video and audio reports, forensic reports and other documentation. The ICC confirmed it had received a filing and said it would "analyze the materials submitted, as appropriate".

Israel's foreign ministry offered assistance to the reservist singled out by the action but officials said the issue was not widespread.

"This is a phenomenon of very limited scope in numbers," foreign ministry director general Eden Bar Tal told reporters in Jerusalem, saying there had been no more than 10-12 cases since the beginning of Israel's campaign in Gaza 15 months ago.

"There was no warrant issued in any of these cases. So it was, I would say, a relatively strong PR activity but with very low, very, very low - zero - in judicial results," he said.

"We believe it's a lot of propaganda activity in general and it's sponsored by entities, a very low number of entities, that have direct connections to terrorist organizations," he said.

Hind Rajab Foundation founder, Dyab Abou Jahjah, posts messages on the social media platform X promising to file legal action against Israeli soldiers and asking for help identifying them. He has also posted messages in support of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, designated as a terrorist organization by many Western countries.

The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case in Brazil attracted wide attention in Israel, underscoring fears that individuals beyond the government and military leadership could be drawn into the war crimes issue, particularly through social media posts.

The Israeli military has warned reservists that they could face arrest abroad over alleged war crimes in Gaza, according to documents published by Israeli media. The left-wing Haaretz newspaper said complaints against IDF soldiers have been filed in South Africa, Belgium and France as well as Brazil.

However, Rubens Becak, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, said it was not always straightforward for third countries to respond to suits of this kind.

"Without specific legislation, it becomes very difficult for institutions such as the Federal Police to act in cases like this," he said.