Spain on Wednesday redoubled its opposition to Washington’s use of its bases against Iran, after US President Donald Trump’s threats of trade retaliation deepened the rift between the NATO allies.
Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday defied calls for “no war” after US-Israeli attacks on Iran over the weekend sparked a regional conflict in the latest policy clash with Trump.
Hours later, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Madrid had “agreed to cooperate with the US military,” without providing details on what the cooperation would entail.
But Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez later told Cadena SER radio that “our position on the use of bases, the war in the Middle East, the bombing of Iran has not changed.”
Trump lashed out at the Sanchez government on Tuesday, calling Spain a “terrible” ally and threatening to cut off all trade with the world’s most dynamic developed economies.
Sánchez defended his position on Wednesday, saying his government’s position “can be summed up in four words: no to war”.
“We will not be complicit in anything harmful to the world and against our values and interests, for fear of retribution,” he added in a televised address.
Spain is part of the European Union, which allows goods to move freely between its 27 countries. This complicates any bid to impose trade restrictions on a single member state.
“Trump’s words don’t always become policy. We have to see if and how he follows through,” said Ángel Saz Carranza, director of the ESA Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics, a Spanish think tank.
‘Responsible Behavior’
Iranian President Masoud Pejeshkian praised Spain at X for its “responsible behavior in resisting the Zionist-American coalition’s human rights abuses and military aggression against countries.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Antonio Costa were among the allies around Sanchez on Wednesday.
“The EU will always ensure that the interests of its member states are fully protected,” Costa wrote in X.
Sanchez had already found himself in the crosshairs of the US for refusing to join NATO allies in a pledge to raise defense spending to five percent of GDP, as demanded by Trump.
He has been fiercely critical of Israel’s war in Gaza and the US military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.
US forces use Rota Naval Base and Moran Air Base in southern Spain under an agreement signed in 1953 under General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Spain, then led by conservative Prime Minister José María Aznar, staunchly supported the United States by sending troops.
Spain’s participation in the Iraq war sparked massive street demonstrations and many Spaniards blamed it for the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombing that killed nearly 200 people.
An offshoot of al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack and called for the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.
Gather his base
Sánchez, in power since 2018, has emerged as a key figure for Europe’s disillusioned progressives, who see him as one of the few openly left-wing voices left in a continent increasingly dominated by right-wing politics.
His opposition to the use of bases is seen by some analysts as an attempt to rally his supporters around the issue of uniting the Spanish left.
His minority government’s popularity has been hit by a string of sexual harassment and graft scandals ahead of the next general election in 2027.
Many on Spain’s right view Sanchez’s opposition to Trump as motivated more by domestic politics than a moral compass.
Alberto Núñez Feijo, head of the main opposition conservative Popular Party, which tops opinion polls, accused Sánchez of using An X’s foreign policy for “partisan” purposes.
In contrast, neighboring Portugal has authorized the United States to “conditionally” use an air base in the Atlantic Ocean’s Azores archipelago for Iranian strikes, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told parliament on Wednesday.
The conservative leader said the powers were granted “as long as these operations are defensive or retaliatory, necessary and proportionate and exclusively aimed at military objectives”.
(France 24 with AFP)
(tags to translate)Middle East
