The assembly befell as Iran imprisoned an Italian reporter and demanded the discharge of a businessman going through extradition to the US.
PALM BEACH, Fla.—President-elect Donald Trump hosted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night time.
Trump and Meloni had been accompanied by the president-elect’s nominee for secretary of state, former Sen. Marco Rubio, and his nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz. Additionally current had been Trump’s Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent and U.S. ambassador to Italy nominee Tilman Fertitta.
After dinner, Trump made one other look with Meloni.
“That is very thrilling, I’m right here with a improbable girl, the prime minister of Italy. She’s actually taken Europe by storm and everybody else, and we’re simply having dinner tonight,” he instructed his supporters.
Rubio known as Meloni a “nice ally, sturdy chief.”
The assembly occurred as Meloni facies a international coverage take a look at following the arrest of Italian reporter Cecilia Sala in Iran on Dec. 19 whereas working underneath a daily journalist visa.
In response to Italian media studies, Sala is in solitary confinement in a freezing chilly cell with a neon mild left on night time and day, her glasses have been confiscated, and he or she has had hardly any contact with the surface world.
The Italian nationwide was detained three days after Mohammad Abedini, an Iranian businessman, was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport on a U.S. arrest warrant for allegedly supplying drone components that Washington says had been utilized in a 2023 assault that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan. Iran has denied involvement within the assault.
On Friday, Iran’s international ministry summoned Italy’s ambassador over Abedini’s detention, Iranian state media reported.
State media reported that an Iranian international ministry official had urged Italy to “reject America’s hostage coverage” and never cooperate with the U.S. warrant, which it known as “opposite to worldwide regulation.”
Tehran additionally urged the Meloni administration to launch Abedini as quickly as attainable to “stop injury to bilateral ties.”
Abedini is being held in jail, and a courtroom is because of determine later this month whether or not to grant him home arrest whereas judges contemplate the U.S. extradition request.
“We don’t focus on conferences which will or could not have occurred, but it surely’s no shock world leaders have reached out to President Trump after his historic win to develop higher relations with the US,” Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung stated earlier Saturday when addressing rumors of a possible assembly.
After her assembly with Trump and attending the screening of the documentary, Meloni left Mar-a-Lago round 11:07 p.m. native time.
Reuters contributed to this report.