Tehran-aligned outlet uses Italian PM's energy diplomacy to advance narrative of US-Israeli "aggression" and Iranian Hormuz dominance
As Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni concluded a tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates aimed at securing energy supplies for Rome, Iranian state-affiliated media seized on the visit to advance Tehran's strategic messaging about the shifting balance of power in the Persian Gulf.
Noornews, an outlet with direct ties to Iran's intelligence establishment and widely regarded as a mouthpiece for hardline factions within the Islamic Republic's security apparatus, published an extensive analysis framing Meloni's trip not as routine energy diplomacy but as evidence of what it called Europe's forced "adaptation to the new regional order" — one in which Iran holds decisive leverage over global energy flows.
The outlet, which operates under the umbrella of Iranian state media and consistently reflects positions aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Supreme National Security Council, argued that the root cause of Europe's current energy vulnerability was not market disruption but what it described as "targeted interventions and military aggressions" by the United States and Israel. Iran's own actions in and around the Strait of Hormuz, Noornews insisted, were purely defensive responses to foreign aggression — a framing that mirrors official statements from Tehran's Foreign Ministry almost verbatim.
The analysis is notable for what it demands, implicitly but unmistakably, of European capitals. Noornews argued that any energy agreements reached with Gulf Arab states would be "only effective when accompanied by a change in practical behavior" — specifically, the termination of Gulf Arab military cooperation with Washington. The message directed at Rome and other European governments is unambiguous: sustainable energy access requires accepting Iranian primacy in the Strait of Hormuz and distancing from the United States.
"Accepting Iran's legal sovereignty over this passage has become an obligation for all actors," the Noornews piece stated, adding that the "military option to change the situation" had proven ineffective and would only result in "the defeat of the aggressors."
The piece also took direct aim at Europe's decades-long security alignment with Washington, characterising it as a structural dependency that had cost European nations both their strategic autonomy and their economic stability. In Noornews' reading, Meloni's Gulf tour is less a sign of Italian agency than a symptom of a continent scrambling to compensate for choices made under American tutelage.
Analysts tracking Iranian information operations note that Noornews regularly serves as a testing ground for narratives that subsequently appear in official Iranian diplomatic communications. The outlet has previously been used to signal Tehran's positions on nuclear negotiations, regional militia activity, and responses to Western sanctions — often before formal government statements are issued.
The publication of this analysis during Meloni's visit reflects Tehran's broader effort to shape how European audiences interpret the current energy crisis: not as a consequence of Iranian behaviour in the Gulf, but as the predictable outcome of what Iran frames as Western imperial overreach.
Illustration: Perplexity