<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has asserted that there is "absolutely no clash with the United States" over the measures announced by Pedro Sánchez's government against Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza. He has asked the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, to condemn the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sanction Second Vice President Yolanda Díaz and Youth Minister Sira Rego at the European level.</strong></h4> "I absolutely do not see any clash with the United States," Albares told La Hora on La1. "Spain has made a decision, which is a sovereign decision, which it can make according to its national and international law, and which we will comply with," he continued. "We are a sovereign state that makes its decisions autonomously and does not follow suit, and this is completely consistent with the overwhelming majority sentiment of the Spanish people," he asserted. Albares made these statements one day after a US State Department spokesperson warned that the latest measures announced by the Spanish government against Israel, which limit access to Spanish ports and airspace to ships and planes transporting weapons for Israel, are "deeply worrying" and "embolden terrorists." "The United States has not really made any comment," the Foreign Minister asserted. Specifically, the State Department spokesperson implied that the Sánchez government's measures could affect the United States' use of its bases in Rota (Cádiz) and Morón (Seville) to send weapons to Israel. In this regard, Albares clarified that the Government will deny "entry into our airspace to any aircraft carrying military equipment with its final destination in Israel," as it has been doing since the Hamas attacks in October 2023, "by not issuing authorizations for the export of military equipment to Israel or by not allowing ships with military equipment whose final destination is Israel to stop in our ports." Albares also reiterated his support for the decision of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to request the partial suspension of the Association Agreement, but warned that "it is not a sufficient step." "We do not want a partial suspension of the Association Agreement, but a total suspension. The Palestinians are not dying partially. They are dying totally. And, therefore, the suspension must be complete,” he added. In any case, the minister insisted that “it is inconsistent to have 19 sets of sanctions against Russia,” which Spain supports because it considers “logical, fair, and necessary,” while at the same time there are “no sanction measures whatsoever against Israel.” “We want some kind of sanction against Israel for this massacre and this extermination” in Gaza, he warned. Furthermore, Albares announced that he has sent a letter to the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, requesting European condemnation of the decision by Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sanction Yolanda Día and Sira Rego, in response to Sánchez's package of “anti-Semitic” measures. “It is not possible for a country that has an Association Agreement with the European Union to sanction two members of a government” of a Member State, the minister asserted, calling for European condemnation of this “completely unfair and disproportionate” measure.
