MADRID: Spain “will not be vassals” to another country, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero said on Wednesday (Mar 4), defying US President Donald Trump’s threats to cut trade with Madrid over its stance against the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Trump floated imposing a trade embargo on Madrid over its refusal to allow US aircraft to use jointly operated naval and air bases in southern Spain for the offensive against Tehran. Spain has denounced the US and Israeli bombings of Iran as reckless and illegal, while most other European nations have withheld direct critique of the attacks.
“We are certainly not going to be anybody’s vassals, we won’t tolerate any threats and we’ll defend our values,” Montero told reporters, citing support for Spain from the European Commission.
The Commission said in a statement on Wednesday it expected the US to abide by its trade deal with the European Union and expressed “full solidarity” with member states, but stopped short of naming Spain. The EU requires that third countries treat it as a single customs bloc.
In a televised address earlier on Wednesday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reiterated Spain‘s anti-war stance, warning that the conflict risked triggering a major global disaster.
“We’re not going to be complicit in something that’s bad for the world, nor contrary to our values and interests, simply to avoid reprisals from someone,” said Sanchez.
One of the most outspoken critics of both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sanchez criticised leaders who “use the fog of war to hide their failure” at home.
“This is how humanity’s great disasters start … You cannot play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions,” he said, highlighting the negative knock-on effects of the Iraq war, from a rise in militant terrorism to soaring energy prices, to argue that the consequences of the attack on Iran were just as nebulous.