Spain’s response to the US Israel Iran war was totally different from those of the European Union consisting of twenty seven member countries from Europe. The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, had the courage to state that the US and Israel are not justified in their attack on Iran. The threat from the nincompoop of a president of the United States that the US will not have any trade relations with Spain did not have any effect on Spain and its president. The US president proved that he was more than a ninny because Spain does not have, like all other European countries, any individual country-specific trade agreement with the United States, as the existing agreement is between the United States and the European Union.
Spanish as a language is a descendent of spoken Latin, brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers and settlers in the third century BCE. It developed into the Castilian dialect by the ninth century CE, bearing witness to the influences of first Romance languages, then those of Germanic invaders and later the Arabic. Spanish today is spoken by five hundred million people across Europe and is the second most spoken language in the world, after English. Spain could boast of an array of cultural icons such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, two artists; Rafael Nadal, tennis player; Penelope Cruz, actor; Cervantes who wrote the famous Don Quixote and even Christopher Columbus, the explorer.
As a country, Spain is known for its vast lands which are empty of people though it has developed cities which are thickly populated. The empty land constitutes about seventy percent of the total land area. Spain is a mountainous country, indeed one of the wealthiest European countries. It had an Arabic influence from the eighth through fifteenth century CE. It is the Castilian development under monarch Alfonso X, by around 1492 that resulted in unification of Spain.
In 1520, an African slave named Francisco Egia, who travelled in a Spanish colonial fleet from Cuba to Mexico, brought smallpox to the mainland. The epidemic, later named as ‘Black Affair’, indeed killed thousands of indigenous population destroying the Aztec civilisation which was resisting the colonisation. Centuries later, in 1803, Spain launched the Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition with twenty two orphan boys, doctors and nurses. It reached the Americas in the famous ship Maria Peeta. The ship went through the Canary Islands to Puerto Rico and Venezuela to arrive in Mexico.
The Spain of the twentieth century will be remembered for the emergence of Francisco Franco, the dictator in 1939. He continued as a dictator till 1975 and was responsible for establishing Spain as a country to be noted. Juan Carlos took over from Franco in 1975 and transitioned modern Spain into a democracy and ruled till 2016. In fact, he was responsible for making Spain a member of the European Union in 1986. The emergence of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party is marked by the leadership of Pedro Sanchez as its Secretary General and later the Prime Minister. He is in the last leg of his second term and it is hoped that he would be elected again to continue as Prime Minister.
Pedro Sanchez gave three reasons for his refusal to allow American defence forces using Spanish bases on their way to attacking Iran. Primarily, he said that the attack was against international laws. Secondly, it was not acceptable to him because problems or conflicts are sorted out through bombs. Thirdly, he said that the solution followed in the war was the repetition of the mistakes of the past. The war was extremely unpopular in Spain and as its prime minister, he said, ‘No a la Guerra’, meaning no to war. He was of the firm belief that Europe’s strategy should be aimed at solving the issues rather than supporting one side. Spain will not be complicit with something that is bad for the world, contrary to the existing values.
Spain’s foreign policy position is very clear, be it Greenland, Venezuela, Gaza, Lebanon or even Cuba. All international disputes ought to be sorted out with the single principle of respect for international law as the basis for conflict resolutions. Spain disapproved of those who placate, appease and flatter a leader of a wealthy country which acts according to its wayward will without respecting the ways of functioning of other nations.
Pedro Sanchez wrote an article in the New York Times where he disapproved of the actions against the so called illegal immigrants. In his pro immigrant attitude, Spain regularised half a million undocumented immigrants issuing them necessary work and residency permits. He wrote against leaders who hunt down and decode the immigrants through operations, definitely keeping the US in mind, that are both condemnable and cruel. He supports the economic benefits that can be available to any nation by promoting an open society. He attributed these reasons for Spain becoming the fastest growing large economy in Europe. He looks at such issues through the moral and ideological lens and believes that leaders should promote good politics, thus making him different from other social democrats.
The denial of permission for US planes to use Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain was responded to by the US president with a threat for cutting down trade. Spain remains a defence against what they called ‘profoundly illegal and unjust war’. To support the official position of Spain, there were plenty of protests on the streets of Madrid. Spanish Minister Margarita Robles stated that war represents one illegality against another and that is responsible for starting humanity’s great disaster.
When the president of the US demanded that the members of the European Union increase its defence expenditure to 5% of the total revenue, Spain limited it to 2.1% which irritated not only the US but even some of the members of the European Union.As of today, Spain remains the loudest opposing voice of Europe against war on Iran by the US and Israel.