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PROJECT FREEDOM DEAD IN 48 HOURS: TRUMP SUSPENDS HORMUZ OPERATION, CLAIMS 'GREAT PROGRESS' TOWARD IRAN DEAL
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Rome: the diplomatic whiplash between Trump-Pope tensions and Rubio's Vatican visit
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
Rome lives a diplomatically charged day on May 6. ANSA covers the suspension of Project Freedom simultaneously with Rubio's imminent Vatican visit — after new Trump attacks on Pope Leo XIV. The US president accuses the pontiff of 'putting many Catholics in danger' by defending Iran's right to a civilian nuclear program.
On Hormuz, ANSA faithfully translates Trump's Truth Social post and notes Meloni's position: Italy's Prime Minister prepares her meeting with Rubio, flanked by Salvini and Tajani at Palazzo Chigi. Rome plays a balancing act — NATO member, but with Mediterranean economic interests that caution against piling on anti-Iranian rhetoric.
Italy seizes above all on the American dissonance: Trump suspends an operation that Rubio had defended as non-negotiable that very morning. The synchronism — Rubio at the Vatican the day after the Hormuz suspension — gives Italian media a global diplomatic frame that anglophone media treat separately.
The Italian line: measured skepticism about the solidity of the announced 'great progress,' and watchfulness over what the Rubio-Leo XIV meeting might unlock for dialogue with Tehran.
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