The US has evacuated 15 planes refueling tankers from military bases in southern Spain.
Published on 3 March 2026
After US President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with the country over the US military’s refusal to use its bases for operations related to an attack on Iran, Spain said the US should focus on international law and bilateral trade agreements with the European Union.
“We have the necessary resources to contain the possible impact of trade sanctions from the US,” the Spanish government said in a statement on Tuesday.
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“The US must comply with international law and bilateral EU-US trade agreements,” it added.
After the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez condemned the attack as a violation of international law. He called for talks to end the war on Iran, saying “one can oppose a hateful regime and, at the same time, oppose unjustified and dangerous military intervention.”
On Monday, Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Manuel Albarez said Madrid would not allow the country’s military bases, which are jointly operated by the US and Spain but are under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran.
“The Spanish bases will not be used for this operation and they will not be used for anything that is not included in the agreement with the United States or for anything that is not in accordance with the United Nations Charter,” Albares said, speaking to Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.
Subsequently, the US evacuated 15 aircraft, including refueling tankers, from Rota and Moran military bases in southern Spain.
On Tuesday, before a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in Washington, DC, that “Spain is terrible” for not allowing the US to use its bases.
He told his Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besant, to “cut off all business” with Spain.
“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” the US president said.
This is not the first time that Spain has angered Trump.
In 2024, Sánchez, one of the waning left-leaning voices in Europe, refused to allow ships carrying weapons to Israel to dock in Spain.
Spain has refused to heed US calls for all NATO members to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2035.
Spain is the world’s top exporter of olive oil and sells auto parts, steel and chemicals to the US. But it is less vulnerable to Trump’s threats of economic punishment than other European countries.
The US will have a $4.8bn trade surplus with Spain for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, with imports of $26.1bn and $21.3bn, according to data from the US Census Bureau.
(tags to translate)Economy
