\n<\/p>\n
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has responded to Donald Trump\u2019s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain over his government\u2019s refusal to facilitate the US\u2019s attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing \u201cRussian roulette with the destiny of millions\u201d.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez, who has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza, said his government\u2019s position on the widening instability could be summed up in three words: \u201cNo to war.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a section of the speech that appeared to directly address Trump\u2019s threats to end all trade with Spain, the prime minister said his country would \u201cnot be complicit in something that is bad for the world \u2013 and that is also contrary to our values \u200b\u200band interests \u2013 simply out of fear of reprisals from someone\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Trump had rounded on Madrid for refusing the US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain to continue its attacks in Iran. \u201cSpain has been terrible,\u201d Trump said during a meeting with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to \u201ccut off all dealings\u201d with the European country.<\/p>\n
In his address on Wednesday, S\u00e1nchez called on the US, Israel and Iran to stop their war before it was too late, saying: \u201cYou can\u2019t respond to one illegality with another because that\u2019s how humanity\u2019s great disasters begin.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYou can\u2019t play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions \u2026 Nobody knows for sure what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear. But we must be prepared, as the proponents say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious economic consequences on a global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointedly invoked the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was supported by his conservative predecessor Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Aznar, as a warning of the looming dangers. S\u00e1nchez said that while that war ostensibly had been intended \u201cto eliminate Saddam Hussein\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy, and to guarantee global security\u201d, it had instead \u201cunleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall\u201d.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez said a government\u2019s prime responsibility was to protect and improve the lives of its citizens \u2013 and not to use geopolitics to cynical ends or to profit from war. \u201cIt 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 \u2013 the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Later on Wednesday, the Spanish government categorically denied any change of heart after the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, suggested to reporters that Madrid now backed the US\u2019s military action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they heard the president\u2019s message yesterday loud and clear,\u201d Leavitt told a news briefing. \u201cIt is my understanding over the past several hours they\u2019ve agreed to cooperate with the US military.\u201d<\/p>\n
The claims were emphatically rejected by Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Spanish government\u2019s position on the war in the Middle East, the bombings in Iran, and the use of our bases has not changed one iota,\u201d Spain\u2019s foreign minister, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares, said an interview with Cadena Ser radio on Wednesday night. \u201cOur \u2018no to war\u2019 stance remains clear and unequivocal \u2026 She may be the White House press secretary, but I\u2019m the foreign minister of Spain and I\u2019m telling her that our position hasn\u2019t changed at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
A government spokesperson added: \u201cIt is not true. We categorically deny any change. Spain\u2019s position has not changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his meeting with Merz, Trump had also criticised Spain once again for refusing to accept Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP. \u201cEverybody was enthusiastic about it \u2013 Germany, everybody \u2013 and Spain didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd now Spain said we can\u2019t use their bases \u2013 and that\u2019s OK. We could use their bases; if we wanted, we could just fly in and use it [sic]. Nobody\u2019s going to tell us not to use it. But we don\u2019t have to. But they were unfriendly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US president also launched a deeply personal attack on the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, over his refusal to let the US use British bases for the strikes, telling reporters: \u201cThis is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merz said later he had told Trump privately that Spain could not be excluded from a trade agreement reached between Brussels and Washington last year. \u201cI said that Spain is a member of the European Union and we negotiate about tariffs with the United States only together or not at all,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way to treat Spain particularly badly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The European Commission has also robustly defended Spain against Trump\u2019s threat of commercial retaliation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny threat against member state is by definition a threat against the EU,\u201d St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9, the EU internal market commissioner, said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI want to be very clear here, from this point of view, the EU\u2019s competency on trade is actually dealt with by the commission. If you threaten one particular country \u2026 we\u2019ve seen that about Greenland. I think we saw that there was a lot of unity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teresa Ribera, a former Spanish deputy prime minister who serves as the EU\u2019s green transition chief, also drew parallels with Trump\u2019s recent talk of seizing Greenland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is very similar to what happened just a month ago with those threats \u2013 also in a boastful tone \u2013 regarding Greenland,\u201d she told Cadena Ser.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the truth is, there was an immediate reaction from our EU partners, from the European Commission, and from the markets. I think that the instability, the tension generated by this way of relating to, or speaking about third parties \u2013 whether it\u2019s about Starmer, Macron or Pedro S\u00e1nchez \u2013 is deeply disruptive, not only for societies, for peace, for cooperation, but also for the economy. And it has immediate consequences for the overall economic activity of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has responded to Donald Trump\u2019s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain over his government\u2019s refusal to facilitate the US\u2019s attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing \u201cRussian roulette with the destiny of millions\u201d. S\u00e1nchez, who has been one of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[304,4214,84,15626,714,1162,430,81,23465,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-45895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cut","9":"tag-doubles","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-sanchez","12":"tag-spain","13":"tag-threat","14":"tag-trade","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-usisrael","17":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}