Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats would not cow Madrid into supporting the American-Israeli war in Iran.
“We are not going to take a position that goes against our values and principles out of fear of reprisals from others,” Sánchez said during a televised address to the nation.
Trump on Tuesday threatened to halt trade with Spain after Madrid barred the U.S. from using jointly operated military bases on Spanish soil to attack Iran.
“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain,” Trump said during a sit-down with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office. “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
Sánchez said Madrid’s position regarding the conflict in Iran was the same it had adopted with regards to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine or Israel’s war in Gaza.
“We say no to the breakdown of international law,” he added. “No to assuming that the world can only solve its problems through conflicts with bombs. No to repeating the mistakes of the past … We say no to war.”
The Spanish prime minister compared the U.S. attack on Iran to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which he said had only resulted in misery and increased global instability.
Sánchez said that he could not predict the exact consequences of “the fall of the terrible Ayatollah regime in Iran,” but he insisted he was sure “that it will not result in a fairer international order, nor will it result in higher salaries, better public services or a healthier environment.”
“What we can see for now is more economic uncertainty, increases in the price of oil and also of gas,” he added. “That’s why we in Spain are against this disaster, because we understand that governments are here to improve people’s lives, to provide solutions to problems, not to worsen people’s lives.”
Via Politico
