“We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of reprisals from someone.”
After refusing to take part in Trump and Israel’s “illegal” war in Iran, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has become an unlikely hero in parts of the Middle East, particularly Iran. Tasnim news agency reported yesterday (March 23) that members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard had even taken to placing stickers on their missiles bearing a photograph of Sánchez alongside a text in Arabic and English that reads:
“Of course, this is not only an illegal war, it is also an inhumane war. Thank you, Prime Minister.”
The news, of course, was manna from heaven for Israel’s Netanyahu government, which is trying its damnedest to drag European governments into the war — including, allegedly, by launching a false flag attack on the UK’s Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean. Here’s the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s response to Sánchez’s newfound popularity in Iran, presented with the usual breathtaking hypocrisy:
Just over three weeks ago, Sánchez became the first European head of state or government to categorically deny US forces permission to use jointly operated bases in their territory for the purpose of Trump’s war against Iran. As we warned at the time, the move risked incurring the wrath of Trump, especially coming on top of Madrid’s refusal to increase Spain’s military spending to 5% of GDP and its recent imposition of sanctions on Israel.
Trump responded initially by threatening to cut off all trade with Spain — a threat he has not yet delivered on, perhaps because the US has an actual trade surplus with Spain. Also, Spain’s exports to the US account for around 4-5% of its total export base, according to Euro News. That is significantly less than some other European economies, including the Republic of Ireland (25%), Germany (10%), Italy (10%) and France (9%).
Further complicating matters is the fact that many of the US’ trade ties with Spain fall within broader trade agreements with the European Union. Meanwhile, new tariffs could get held up in US courts. But all’s not lost. In a recent WSJ op-ed, subtly titled “How Trump Can Punish Spain“, Eugene Kontorovich, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, proposed another option: adding Spain to the US federal list of foreign boycotters:
These laws provide significant authority to impose economic costs on Spain. They are a fitting tool, since they respond to the leftist turn by Spain—a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member—against America and its allies.
These laws were adopted in the late 1970s with the Arab League Boycott of Israel in mind but were written generally to cover boycotts of any country with which the U.S. has normal trade relations. The laws have been repeatedly sustained by U.S. courts against challenges on First Amendment grounds. That is because they don’t forbid companies themselves from boycotting a country on ideological grounds, only from doing so at the behest of or in concert with a foreign boycotting state.
These antiboycott measures have been enforced with far less frequency in recent decades as Arab states increasingly abandoned their boycott of Israel. But late last year Spain joined Yemen, Iraq and a handful of other states maintaining an Israel boycott. The move was part of the same political orientation that led it to turn down the U.S. in its time of need.
The Ribicoff Amendment, passed as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976, requires that the Treasury Department maintain a “current list of countries which require or may require participation in or cooperation with an international boycott.” Being on the list isn’t harmful in itself but it does trigger tax consequences for U.S. companies doing business in listed countries.
“No to War”
Sánchez’s response to Trump’s threat to cut all trade with Spain was to deliver a 10-minute televised address with the rather insipid title: “An institutional declaration by the prime minister to assess recent international events.” In the speech, Sánchez dusted off the slogan used by millions of anti-war protesters 23 years ago against Bush, Blair and Aznar’s Iraq misadventure: “no a la guerra” (no to war).*
From The Guardian:
The thrust of the Spanish prime minister’s argument was that another war in the Middle East would claim numerous lives, further destabilise the world and have dire economic consequences – but many of its paragraphs were unambiguously personal.
A government’s overriding duty, said Sánchez, was to protect and improve the lives of its citizens, not to manipulate or profit from global conflicts.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this duty use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few – the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,” he said.
Then came the lines: “It is naive to believe that democracies or respect between nations can spring from ruins. Or to think that practising blind and servile obedience is a form of leadership … We will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of reprisals from someone.”
Who “someone” was needed no explanation.
A little added background to Spain’s “No to War” historic moment, courtesy of El País:
It is a slogan that brings back painful memories (for the PP) of Spain’s support for a US invasion justified by a falsehood – weapons of mass destruction – of the start of a war that left Iraq in chaos and the demonstration of the left’s capacity to rally and stage a comeback. Indirectly, it refers to the subsequent refusal of the government of José María Aznar and the PP of Mariano Rajoy to recognize the Islamist authorship of the 11-M attacks to prevent these attacks from being linked to Iraq.
Since making his “No to War” speech three weeks ago, Sánchez has continued to express opposition to the conflict in West Asia, including from the seat of EU power in Brussels:
In a speech to Spain’s Congress on Friday, Sánchez stepped up his the war in a broadside against the refusal of his biggest opposition rival, the People’s Party’s Albert Feijoo, to take an unambiguous position on the war:
You do not make it clear whether you support Trump and Israel’s war in Iran. You do not make it clear. But you cannot encourage and support those who start the fire and then complain about the effects of the smoke the fire causes. He has been wrong for 18 days of war.
If Spain’s two main opposition parties, the Popular Party and far-right Vox, were to win the next election, the resulting government would not only unquestioningly support Trump’s illegal wars in the Middle East, Latin America and wherever else but would also lend its full backing to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. It would be like having a Milei government in Southern Europe.
Sánchez demanded on Sunday the prompt reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and “the preservation of all energy deposits” in the Middle East as strikes from both sides increasingly target energy infrastructure.
The Art of Political Survival
A few months ago, Sánchez appeared to be on the ropes as a succession of scandals, including one involving his own wife, rocked his government. Now, he is being held up as one of Europe’s most important leaders after first downgrading Spain’s diplomatic ties with Israel, earlier this month, and now emphatically rejecting Trump’s demands for Europe to lend support for his disastrous illegal war of aggression against Iran.
Sánchez’s foreign policy shift over the past year is as much about political expedience as it is morality. The “Frankenstein” coalition he has led for almost eight years includes pacifist left-wing parties like Podemos, Bildu and Esquerra Republicana that could collapse the government if it agreed to support or facilitate the US’ attacks against Iran. They consider what Israel is doing in Gaza as genocide, as does an overwhelming majority of the Spanish people.
When thousands of pro-Palestine protesters brought the final stage of the Vuelta cycling race to a grinding halt in protest of the participation of an Israeli team, Sánchez was left with a choice: condemn the acts and trigger the likely collapse of his government or hitch his wagon to the anti-genocide movement. And Sánchez is, if nothing else, an innate political survivor.
The contrast could not be starker with other European “leaders”, who have hemmed and hawed nonstop since the war against Iran began over three weeks ago. On Day one, Germany’s Friedrich Merz pronounced from the Oval Room that he and President Trump were on the same page regarding Iran. He even backed Trump’s proposal to embargo Spain, citing Madrid’s failure to increase military spending.
It then took Merz all of thirteen days to come to the conclusion that the US-Israeli war on Iran is not, after all, Berlin’s war. But that does not mean that Berlin is not party to it:
The same goes for the United Kingdom whose Starmer government insists it will not be drawn into the US-Israeli war with Iran even as multiple US bombers take off each day from UK airbases to attack Iranian targets — but only as part of “defensive” manoeuvres.
From a few years ago…
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen continues to provide cover for Washington and Tel Aviv’s blatant war crimes in the Middle East, which has even prompted a stinging rebuke from former EU head gardener chief diplomat Josep Borrell.
“Ursula von der Leyen is incapable of standing up to Washington. She is systematically biased when it comes to the USA and Israel, despite Europe suffering consequences in terms of energy prices, while Trump boasts that it is good for the United States because they are an oil exporter,” Borrell noted, adding that Brussels “loses credibility by selectively applying international norms.”
The less said about NATO chief Mark Rutte, the better. Suffice to say, as an op-ed in Spain’s newspaper of record, El País, points out, his credibility, like that of Von der Leyen and current EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas, is at rock bottom as he desperately tries to present NATO as a united front in support of Trump’s disastrous war…
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Nick Corbishley 