Spain does not support in any way the regime of the Ayatollahs of Iran, and has joined all the condemnations within the European Union that have been made against them, but the Government of Pedro Sánchez is absolutely convinced that the unilateral action of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu is unacceptable and is mobilizing all its political and diplomatic resources to condemn it and confront it. The Spanish Government has the strongest position condemning Trump and Netanyahu’s war, and that was very clear in the videoconference meeting of the EU foreign ministers held yesterday, which was not easy.
According to Executive sources, Spain even stopped the meeting because the statement was too ambiguous and forced, supported by other countries such as Sweden, Ireland, Denmark or Slovenia, a harsher text that the Spanish Government still considers very insufficient. Positions such as those of Germany, which this Sunday declared itself willing, together with France and the United Kingdom, to carry out the “necessary defensive actions” to destroy Iran’s military capabilities, and Italy, closer to Netanyahu or Trump on this front, made a stronger text impossible.
Sánchez and his Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, are convinced that their position, however minority it may seem in the EU, is the one that has the most support not only among Spanish public opinion, but in many other countries, including the United States, where the Spanish Government sees a very weak Trump with criticism both
from the Democrats and the Republicans and even within the MAGA movement (Make America Great Again), to which he promised that he would end Washington’s interventions abroad.
“It seems that Trump is self-destructing. There have already been American casualties. We already warned that the precedent created by the intervention in Venezuela was very dangerous. Well, we already have it. This will leave in the Middle East greater animosity towards the West on the part of the Arab world, with the risk of greater terrorism and instability,” says a member of the Spanish Government.
Sánchez was especially clear when he arrived in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress fair, in his condemnation of Trump and Netanyahu’s war. “Yesterday, the fears were confirmed. The United States and Israel attacked Iran unilaterally, without taking into account the international community. It is true, they beheaded a terrible regime, which represses its citizens and has attacked the majority of its Arab neighbors. All these actions violate international law, are causing hundreds of innocent victims and plunge an entire region into a terror that will bring much more global instability. It is not that the end does not justify the means. It is that the end itself and those means run the risk. risk of leading us to an even greater disaster,” he warned. “We are at a crossroads. We must choose the path we must take. One, in which the priority is to attack, defend ourselves with bombs, drones, bots, tariffs or another of shared prosperity. Instead of killing each other. It seems quite evident that the dilemma is clear. War or peace, progress or regression. Spain is clear about it.”
Felipe VI, who presided over the opening of the fair at the gala of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), also addressed some clear words warning of the “clear risk of regional escalation” and the “unpredictable consequences” of the conflict. The King called for “maximum moderation in the use of force, respect for the lives of civilians and the search for a diplomatic solution to this current logic of confrontation”, necessary premises “to avoid a chaotic situation and blatant repression, and to reestablish dialogue in an honest search for peace.”
Sánchez does not avoid criticism of the Tehran regime, but rejects that this is the sensible response, violating all the rules of international law. “Today it is essential to remember that you can be against a hateful regime and at the same time be against unjustified military action. That you must be against a war without authorization from the UN Council and the United States Congress. Therefore, I would like to once again appeal to immediate de-escalation, to full international law and the urgency of resuming dialogue as soon as possible. That is where Spain is going to be and that is where the entire EU should be,” concluded the Spanish president.
After the meeting with his counterparts, Albares was also clear: “The unilateral action of the United States and Israel does not fit within the Charter of the United Nations and International Law. The role of the European Union has to be to call for de-escalation, a return to dialogue, detente, diplomacy and negotiation that through violence we are not going to achieve stability, democracy or peace,” he said.
Albares, like Sánchez, also criticizes the Tehran regime, but does not believe that the solution is this unilateral action. Albares condemns “the brutal inhuman repression of the Iranian regime towards its population. The role of the European Union must be to protect freedom, democratic aspirations, the most basic fundamental rights of the Iranian population, especially women.”
Feijóo’s dilemma
Meanwhile, the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, does indirectly support the attacks by the United States and Israel. “The world is better when a tyrant falls,” he wrote on social networks. “In Iran, for decades, the ayatollahs have sustained a regime of repression and constant threat. Millions of citizens have suffered persecution, prison and death for defending basic freedoms. And it has been Iranian women who, with admirable determination, have led the resistance against that oppression. The fall of such a system is good news for freedom and democracy,” he concluded yesterday.
Feijóo does raise that dilemma that Sánchez rejects, that is, either one is with the ayatollahs or with Washington. In his opinion, human rights should be a “permanent” criterion in Spain’s foreign action. “No exceptions, no tactical calculations and no interested silences. Those who have remained silent in the face of systematic repression in Iran are not in a position to give lessons.” “Something is wrong when Hamas, the Houthis and the Iranian regime applaud the Government. That is not defending the interests of Spain, but putting them at risk. Let us live up to that responsibility. With freedom or with tyrants,” he concluded.
