Sumar files complaint to Public Prosecutor’s Office on stopover of ships with weapons for Israel in Algeciras

Eduardo González The spokesman for IU in the Congress and member of the Sumar Parliamentary Group, Enrique Santiago, has filed a complaint this Tuesday with the Attorney General's Office for the alleged passage through Algeciras of more than a thousand ships from the United States loaded with weapons for Israel. “We have gone to the State Attorney General's Office to file a new complaint after having learned that, in recent months, at least 1,185 ships with cargo, weapons, military supplies for Israel from the United States have passed through the port of Algeciras,” Santiago said in a video released by IU on social media. According to Sumar - a minority partner in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government - the investigation carried out by several organizations has detected up to 1,185 shipments of military supplies, weighing more than 13,000 metric tons, including materials such as armored plates, armored vehicles, engines and other items, as well as projectiles and various military equipment, according to the Europa Press agency. This fact, as Santiago explained in the video, “clearly contravenes the agreements taken by our Government to eliminate any type of collaboration in the shipment of weapons to Israel, the purchase or sale of weapons.” For this reason, he continued, “we ask the Attorney General to investigate and also to take measures against the possible arrival, on the 9th and 14th of November, of two new cargo ships from the United States bound for Israel that were initially going to make transit in Algeciras.” “If they made transit in Algeciras they would be committing a crime, a crime against the Law of Nations, punishable by our Penal Code,” he warned. “Therefore, we ask the Attorney General to intervene,” he concluded. Last October, Europa Press recalled, Enrique Santiago himself filed another complaint with the Attorney General to block and inspect the ship ‘Zim Virginia’ coming from the United States since, according to Sumar, it was going to dock in Barcelona presumably with explosives destined for Israel. Parliamentary questions This Monday, Enrique Santiago registered several written questions to the Government in Congress in which he urges the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to “confirm whether there were at least 25 journeys from the US with military cargo between May and September of this year 2024 that stopped at the port of Algeciras, before continuing to Israel to deliver it.” He also demands that, if so, it indicate what is the reason for the “flagrant contradiction” with the statements of Albares himself in May 2024 regarding this issue, in which he assured that he would prohibit ships loaded with military material destined for Israel from docking in his ports. The registered text also asks “how many ships have docked in Algeciras since October 7, 2023 with supplies or military material destined for Israel” and “what specific material these ships have carried”, if their cargo has been thoroughly inspected” and “who or what body authorized their docking and subsequent departure.” In addition, the Sumar MP submitted a written question at the end of October in which he warned - based on information on the website of the port of Valencia - of the stopover in Spain of two ships from the Israeli company Zim (the 'Zim Ningbo' and the 'Zim Yangtze') and urged the Government to clarify whether it "can confirm" that these ships were not transporting "military weapons bound for Israel". He also asked whether "the Government's plans include the development of a cargo registration protocol for those ships bound for Israel". Last May, the two partners in the coalition government, PSOE and Sumar, had a serious clash over complaints from the party of Vice President Yolanda Díaz (and the former coalition partner, Podemos) about the alleged arrival in Spain of a ship supposedly loaded with weapons for Israel. The socialist part of the Executive assured that the ship, which finally decided to dock elsewhere, was not heading to Israel and accused both parties of spreading "rumors".

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