Giorgia Meloni traveled by surprise to the United States to meet with Donald Trump

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made a surprise trip to Palm Beach late Saturday and met with President-elect Donald Trump who will take office in the White House on the 20th. Meloni confirmed her conservative position and her affinity with Trump, but the lightning trip was prompted by a very serious problem facing the premier: the arrest in Tehran of the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala since December 19the day before her return to Rome, without any accusations having been formalized against her.

In Italy, the Sala family has asked for press silence because the case is very difficult. Iran keeps her in prison because Italy has arrested the Iranian engineer Abedini Najafadani for an extradition request from the North American government, which accuses him of terrorism.

Abedini is a drone specialist and was arrested at the Milan airport three days before Sala’s imprisonment, clearly the key piece in ensuring that Italy does not accept the extradition requested by the US.

The case has taken center stage in Italian public opinion and Meloni acknowledged that it is one of the most difficult problems he has faced in his career.

The meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago lasted five hours and was a success, except for the Sala case, never mentioned in the luxurious Palm Beach summer residence owned by the president-elect.

To the case is added nothing less than the visit of outgoing president Joe Biden, who arrives in Italy next week with his family. It is an official visit, because the Bidens are Catholics and want to say goodbye to Pope Francis, whom they admire.

He will also hold meetings with Meloni and Italian President Sergio Mattarella. The case of Cecilia Sala’s prison in Tehran will be an inevitable issue, but it is believed that the solution is so difficult that Trump will have to solve it when he arrives at the White House.

Until now, the American justice system is inflexible with the case of the Iranian engineer. Italy can deny extradition to the United States, to which Iran would respond by sending Cecilia Sala from Evin prison to Rome. But the step may raise difficult diplomatic problems.