The Diplomat
The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, held a telephone conversation on Monday with the chief of the Defense Staff, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, in which the situation in the Red Sea was one of the topics discussed, according to a statement released by Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Captain Jereal Dorsey.
Brown’s call to López Calderón, reported yesterday by El Confidencial, is interpreted in diplomatic and military media as a new attempt by the United States to convince Spain to join the international operation it is leading to combat the threat of the Houthi rebels against maritime navigation in the Red Sea.
However, Washington has not acknowledged at any time that it is pressuring the Spanish authorities to adopt a decision favorable to participation in the operation. Thus, on his social network account and strategic defense matters between our two countries.
Something more explicit about the call – the first between the two after the appointment of the American officer last October – was the spokesman for the US military, Jereal Dorsay, who said that they talked about “cooperation in strategic security, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and on the security environment in Europe and the Middle East”.
Dorsay added that they also discussed “ongoing illegal Houthi attacks on commercial vessels operating in international waters in the Red Sea.” And he added that Brown reiterated to López Calderón “the desire of the United States to work with all countries that share an interest in maintaining the principle of freedom of navigation and guaranteeing the safe passage of global shipping.”
These words can be interpreted as a new invitation to Spain to finally join the countries that will be part of the so-called ‘Operation Guardian Protector’.
In any case, the US Embassy in Madrid published a statement to make it clear that “the purpose of that call” between the two officials was not to address the situation in the Red Sea and clarified that the conversation had been planned for several weeks.
“Due to the close partnership between the United States and Spain, this call was scheduled several weeks in advance as part of General Brown’s presentation with major allies and partners of the United States,” the Embassy explained, emphasizing that “Spain is an ally, partner and indispensable friend” of Washington.
For its part, the Ministry of Defense confirmed the telephone conversation, but limited itself to pointing out that it served to highlight “the magnificent relations with Spain”, without clarifying the specific content of the call and whether the operation was discussed in the Red Sea.
Sources from the department headed by Margarita Robles consulted by Europa Press insisted that there is no change in the Government’s position and referred to what the minister stated a few days ago, in the sense that the mission proposed by the United States “is not defined ” for now.
“Spain has never been afraid to participate in any mission, but Spain precisely because it has rigor, because it has seriousness, because it has professionalism, what it wants is for the missions to be defined and for no country, whatever this country may be, to tell What Spain has to do,” she stressed during a visit to Córdoba, thus referring to the fact that it was the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, who announced that Spain would participate without first having the Government.
The issue of the Red Sea operation was one of those addressed in the telephone conversation held on December 22, after a call from the US president, Joe Biden, to the head of the Spanish Executive, Pedro Sánchez, to congratulate him on the formation of a new Government, according to the White House.
The call came just one day after it was learned that Spain had vetoed in the EU that ‘Operation Atalanta’, which fights against piracy off the coast of Somalia, could be reconverted to contain the threat of the Houthis in the Red Sea.
Days later, at the press conference on December 27, Sánchez stated that Spain is not opposed to there being a mission in charge of ensuring the safety of navigation in the Red Sea, but rather to adapting ‘Atalanta’ for this task.
“We consider that Operation Atalanta does not have the characteristics nor is it of the nature of the operation required for the Red Sea,” said the president, emphasizing that the risk posed by the Houthis “is different” from that of the pirates and “the nature of the challenge is different.” “One operation has nothing to do with another,” he stressed.
