Sánchez reiterates “No to War” and avoids Trump’s threats

Eduardo González The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, issued an institutional statement this Wednesday, March 4, regarding the crisis that has erupted in the Middle East, in which he affirmed that the government’s position “can be summed up in four words: No to War.” He avoided any comment on the threats made by US President Donald Trump against Spain in retaliation for the government’s decision not to allow the use of the Morón and Rota military bases for the offensive against Iran. “Last Saturday, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which in turn responded by indiscriminately bombing nine countries in the region and a British base located in a European state, in Cyprus,” Sánchez recalled. “Since then, hostilities have continued, if not intensified, causing hundreds of deaths in homes, schools, and hospitals, as well as the collapse of international stock markets and the disruption of air traffic and the Strait of Hormuz, through which, until very recently, 20 percent of the world's total gas and oil transited,” he continued. “No one 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 instigators say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and therefore serious consequences on a global scale, including economic ones,” he warned. “The Spanish government's position on this situation is clear and consistent,” he declared. “It is the same position we have maintained in Ukraine and Gaza,” he continued. “First, no to the breakdown of international law that protects us all, especially the most vulnerable, the civilian population,” and, “second, no to assuming that the world can only solve its problems through conflict and bombs, and finally, no to repeating the mistakes of the past,” stated Pedro Sánchez. “No to war” “In short, the position of the Spanish Government can be summed up in four words: No to war,” declared Pedro Sánchez, recalling the slogan most frequently used in the days leading up to the 2003 Iraq War, launched by then-US President George W. Bush and which received the full support of the Spanish government of José María Aznar (PP). “The world, Europe, and Spain have been here before: 23 years ago, another US administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East, a war that, in theory, as was said at the time, was being waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy, and guarantee global security, but which, in reality, seen in retrospect, produced the opposite effect: it unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” he recalled. “The Iraq War generated a drastic increase in jihadist terrorism, a serious migration crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean, and a general increase in energy prices and, therefore, also in the cost of living: that was the gift the Azores trio gave to Europeans at that time, a more insecure world and a worse life,” he denounced. According to Sánchez, “it is true that it is still too early to know if the war in Iran will have similar consequences to the war in Iraq, if it will bring about the fall of the terrible regime of the ayatollahs in Iran, or if it will stabilize the region,” but “what we do know is that it will not lead to a fairer international order, nor to higher wages, better public services, or a healthier environment; in fact, what we can foresee at the moment is greater economic uncertainty, and increases in the price of oil and gas.” “That is why, from Spain, we are against this disaster, because we understand that governments are here to improve people's lives, to provide solutions to problems, not to worsen them, and it is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this mission use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few—the same ones as always, the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,” he stated. Evacuations of Spaniards and aid “Given this situation, the progressive coalition government will do the same as it has done in other conflicts and international crises,” Sánchez affirmed. “First, we are assisting the Spanish men and women who are in the Middle East and we will help them return to our country, if that, of course, is their wish. The foreign service and the army are working day and night to organize evacuation operations,” he announced. “Second,” he continued, “the Spanish government is studying scenarios and possible measures to help households, workers, businesses, and the self-employed, and thereby mitigate the economic impacts of this conflict, should it be necessary.” “Thanks to the dynamism of our economy and also thanks to the responsible fiscal policy of the government, Spain currently has the necessary resources to face this crisis once again; we have the capacity, the political will, and we will do so hand in hand with social partners, as we did during the pandemic, the energy crisis, and recently the tariff crisis,” he affirmed. “Stop before it’s too late” Thirdly, he continued, “we will collaborate, as we always have, with all the countries in the region that advocate for peace and compliance with international law, which are two sides of the same coin, supporting them with the diplomatic and material resources they require.” Likewise, “we will work with our European allies on a coordinated and truly effective response, and we will continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and Palestine, two places that deserve not to be forgotten.” “Finally, the Government will continue to demand a cessation of hostilities and a diplomatic resolution to this war,” Sánchez affirmed. “The appropriate word is demand, because Spain is a full member of the European Union, NATO, and the international community, and because this crisis also affects us, Europeans, and consequently, Spaniards,” he warned. “Therefore, we must demand the full resolve of the United States, Iran, and Israel to stop before it is too late,” he declared. “I have said it on many occasions, and I repeat it now: one illegality cannot be met with another, because that is how the great disasters of humanity begin,” and because, “very often, major wars erupt due to a chain of events that spiral out of control because of miscalculations, technical failures, and unforeseen circumstances; therefore, we must learn from history and cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions of people,” he cautioned. “The powers involved in this conflict must immediately cease hostilities and commit to dialogue and diplomacy, and the rest of us must act consistently, defending now the same values we defend when we talk about Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, or Greenland,” he insisted. “No one is with the ayatollahs, but we are with international law and peace” “The question is not whether or not we are in favor of the ayatollahs. No one is, certainly not the Spanish people, and of course not the Spanish government either. The question, instead, is whether or not we are on the side of international law and therefore on the side of peace,” the Prime Minister warned. “The Spanish people have always condemned Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq, but that doesn’t mean they supported the Iraq War, because it was illegal, unjust, and failed to provide a real solution to almost any of the problems it purported to address. Similarly, we condemn the Iranian regime, which represses and vilely murders its citizens, particularly women, but at the same time, we reject this conflict and call for a diplomatic and political solution,” he asserted. “Some will accuse us of being naive for doing this, but what is naive is thinking that violence is the solution. It is naive to believe that democracies or respect between nations spring from ruins, or to think that practicing blind and servile obedience is a form of leadership. On the contrary, I believe that this position is not at all naive; it is consistent, and therefore we will not be complicit in something that is bad for the world and that is also contrary to our values and interests simply out of fear of reprisals from someone,” he declared. “Some will say that we are alone in this hope, but that is not true either: the Government of Spain stands with those it must stand with, it stands with the values that our parents and grandparents enshrined in our Constitution; Spain stands with the founding principles of the European Union, it stands with the Charter of the United Nations, it stands with international law, and therefore, it stands with peace and peaceful coexistence between countries,” he stated.

Related Content

Sánchez to appear before Congress to report on the war in the Middle East

Spain and Portugal commit to mitigating the effects of climate change on the Iberian Peninsula

Spain will send naval military support to Cyprus to contribute to deterrence against Iranian attacks

Albares expresses his “full solidarity” with the Gulf countries and his “strongest condemnation” of Iran’s attacks

Foreign Ministry has repatriated nearly 3,000 Spaniards from the Middle East