Spain defies Trump, withholds support for Iran War

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has responded firmly after US president Donald Trump threatened to cut all trade with its European ally. Sánchez made his opposition to the illegal US-Israeli assault on Iran clear, saying:

one can be against a hateful regime… and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law.

Sánchez, undeterred by Trump’s latest tantrum, has asserted that his country will not bow or change its stance even as the US presses down harder.

Same players, another dirty war

Sánchez made a clear call for peace and compliance with international law, highlighting the devastation of the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Expressing no love for Iran’s government, Sánchez nonetheless insisted:

The question is whether we are in favour of peace and international legality…

You cannot answer one illegality with another, because that is how the great catastrophes of humanity begin.

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He also suggested that Trump may be using the illegal assault on Iran as a distraction from his failures elsewhere, saying:

Governments are here to improve people’s lives, to provide solutions to problems, not to make people’s lives worse. And it is absolutely unacceptable for those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling that mission to use the smoke of war to hide their failure and fill the pockets of a select few, the usual suspects – the only ones who win when the world stops building hospitals to make missiles.

Trump’s words and policies aren’t impressing ordinary people in Spain either. A recent poll, for example, showed that 77% of the Spanish population dislikes Trump.

The spectre of the invasion of Iraq

Spain has also been overwhelmingly critical of the fallout from the calamitous US invasion of Iraq. Commenting on its aftershocks in Europe, Sánchez said the invasion had made people’s lives “more insecure” and left them “worse” off.

At the time of the invasion 23 years ago, Spain’s conservative government joined the “coalition of the willing” (the main force that enabled the illegal offensive), contributing 1,300 troops. Due to the backlash at home, the Spanish conservatives lost the 2004 general election to the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party.

Spain: a voice for peace

The Spanish government is not perfect – no government is. But during Israel’s genocide in Gaza, it has been one of the few European countries with the common decency to:

In fact, as Trump was having a tantrum over its opposition to the illegal assault on Iran, Spain reportedly participated in a Hague Group emergency meeting on Wednesday 4 March discussing accountability measures against Israel for its war crimes.

In the midst of the US-Spain spat, French leader Emmanuel Macron and European Council president António Costa expressed solidarity with Spain. And it’s clear that there’s broad support for Sánchez’s position in Europe.

As other European countries oscillate between lukewarm statements and indifference, it’s clear that the world sorely needs more politicians like Pedro Sánchez – and fewer like Donald Trump.

Featured image via the Canary