Spain will defend its “No to war” stance this week before its European Union partners

Eduardo González The military escalation in the Middle East will be the main focus of the two major European Union meetings taking place this week in Brussels: the EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC), to be held this Monday and attended by Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, and the European Council, scheduled for Thursday, March 19, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will be able to defend his position on the conflict, summarized in the slogan "No to war." The meeting, which will also address the invasion of Ukraine, comes at a particularly difficult time for the much-vaunted transatlantic relationship, following the unilateral decision by the US to temporarily lift oil sanctions on Russia and, to further complicate matters, the controversial remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which she questioned the validity of the rules-based international system as the only way to defend EU interests. The EU Council meeting will take place in Brussels and will be chaired by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas. According to the agenda, and as was widely expected, the two main topics of discussion will be Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East as a result of the Israeli and US offensive against Iran and Tehran's harsh reprisals against a dozen Gulf countries. Regarding the first point, the Council will discuss Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, and the EU foreign ministers will hold an informal exchange of views via videoconference with their Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Sybiha. As for the second point, the EU foreign ministers will also discuss the situation in the Middle East "in light of the latest developments following the outbreak of the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran, and its repercussions for the entire region." On Thursday, March 19, the European Council will meet, where leaders will address the military escalation in the Middle East, the EU's response to its geopolitical and economic consequences (including energy prices and energy security), and the situation in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. The talks will include the participation of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who will join a working lunch “to discuss the deteriorating international situation and how the European Union, in collaboration with its partners, can act to defend multilateralism.” In his letter of invitation, European Council President António Costa stressed the need to “identify the instruments we need to mobilize to ensure a timely, coordinated, and effective response that protects our citizens and businesses, while working towards de-escalation and stability in the region.” Costa also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the meeting and stressed the importance of "increasing pressure on Russia until it begins meaningful peace negotiations" and reaffirming support for Ukraine in its defense and in the pursuit of lasting peace. Zelenskyy's presence in Brussels comes a week after Defense Minister Margarita Robles, ignoring the caution with which the government usually handles this type of news for security reasons, announced at a press conference, on her own initiative, that the Ukrainian president would make his fourth visit to Spain "in the coming days." No official details have been provided about this supposed visit, not even the date. The Brussels meeting also comes after the resumption of Russia's massive attacks on residential areas and energy facilities in Ukraine. “Our solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Our support for Ukraine is more necessary than ever. We must maintain unity and resolve against the aggressor,” Albares wrote on social media this Saturday, March 14, to condemn these attacks. The Middle East Inevitably, the Middle East conflict will dominate much of the discussions in Brussels. One day after the launch of the Israeli-American offensive on February 28, Kaja Kallas chaired an extraordinary European Security Council meeting via videoconference, in which ministers called for “maximum restraint, the protection of civilians, and full respect for international law,” including the “principles of the UN Charter and international humanitarian law.” They also stressed the importance of preventing further escalation of the situation and called on Iran to end its “indiscriminate attacks” and “violations of the sovereignty of several countries in the region.” At that meeting, Albares rejected “the unilateral action of the United States and Israel,” which “has no place within the Charter of the United Nations and International Law,” and denounced “the brutal, inhumane repression of the Iranian regime against its population” and “the unjustified attacks, without any basis, that Iran is carrying out with missiles and drones against countries in the region, countries friendly to Spain, and the Gulf countries of Jordan.” Four days later, Kallas convened a second teleconference meeting of the FAC, this time with the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), in which the ministers condemned “the unjustifiable Iranian attacks.” At this meeting, Albares expressed his “full solidarity” with the countries of the region and his “strongest condemnation” of Iran’s “unjustifiable attacks.” Spain's "No to war" Spain's stance on the conflict was made perfectly clear by Pedro Sánchez on March 4th, when he announced, in an institutional statement, that the Government's position "can be summed up in four words: No to war," echoing the slogan most used in the days leading up to the 2003 Iraq War, launched by then-US President George W. Bush, which received the full support of the Spanish government under José María Aznar (PP). Almost a week after Sánchez's statement, José Manuel Albares warned that Spain will not "participate in any type of action that implies support for the war at this time in Iran and the Middle East." "The Government of Spain only participates in operations that can guarantee peace and the security of the European Union, and those are the parameters within which we operate," he asserted at the press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting. However, Spain has announced the deployment of the frigate ‘Cristóbal Colón’ to Cyprus, accompanied by the French aircraft carrier ‘Charles de Gaulle’ and other ships from the Greek Navy, to participate in deterrence operations. Cyprus, a member of the EU (currently holding the rotating presidency of the Council) but not of NATO, is the only European country to have been attacked to date by Iran (specifically, its British base), and has therefore requested support from the member states of the European Union. So far, France and Greece have responded, in addition to the United Kingdom, and the European Commission has even raised the possibility of activating the EU's mutual defense clause. To defend the deployment of the frigate, which could contradict Spain's position on the conflict, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has stated that it is not an offensive action, but rather a mission of “protection and possible evacuation.” Meanwhile, Pedro Sánchez will appear before the plenary session of the Congress of Deputies on March 25 to report on the Executive's position regarding the conflict in the Middle East, and Spain and Iraq have already committed to raising the escalation of the conflict with the United Nations General Assembly. The impact on Europe The circumstances are what they are: after launching a war in the Middle East without warning the EU member states, a war whose consequences directly affect Europe (20 percent of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but 90 percent of the gas and 96 percent of the oil consumed in Europe is imported, and in Spain, the percentage is 100 percent), Trump has decided, unilaterally and without consulting anyone, to temporarily suspend sanctions on Russian oil purchases, supposedly to mitigate the impact on crude oil prices caused precisely by US and Israeli bombings of Iran and the subsequent Iranian response against several Middle Eastern countries, including the strategic Strait of Hormuz. “The unilateral decision by the United States to lift sanctions on Russian oil exports is very worrying, as it affects European security,” wrote António Costa on social media. For her part, European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho recalled that, according to estimates, “Russia has been obtaining, based on available information, $150 million per day in additional revenue from oil sales since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.” “In this context, now is not the time to relax sanctions against Russia,” she warned. “Russia is currently benefiting from the sale of its oil in the current situation,” she added. Another spokesperson for the European Commission, Siobhan McGarry, stated on Friday, during the Commission's daily press briefing, that Brussels understands “that the exception granted by the United States is limited in time and scope, applying only to vessels already at sea.” “The Commission remains convinced that the oil price cap and our sanctions against Russia are well-targeted and remain in place, even in the current volatile oil market situation.” The United States has assured that the suspension of sanctions on Russian oil shipments is temporary, for a period of 30 days, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has clarified that this measure is “narrowly limited, short-term, applies only to oil that is already in transit” and will not provide a significant financial benefit to the Russian government. Spain's position has reverberated through the internal political life of even Germany, one of the EU's leading powers. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has faced strong criticism in his own country for his inaction when he witnessed, firsthand, the threats made by US President Donald Trump against Spain in retaliation for the Pedro Sánchez government's decision not to allow the use of the Morón and Rota military bases for the offensive against Iran. Following Trump's remarks—which were repeated in the following days—António Costa expressed the European Union's "full solidarity" with Spain, and the European Commission expressed its "full solidarity with all member states and all their citizens" and declared its readiness to "act if necessary" to "safeguard the EU's interests." For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron also conveyed his solidarity to Sánchez and his support for Spain's decision not to allow the use of Morón and Rota in the US attack on Iran. To make matters worse, Merz himself, who has gone from asking Sánchez or Macron "not to lecture partners and allies on international law," reacted with bewilderment to the surprising US decision to temporarily lift oil sanctions on Russia: "We want to ensure that Russia does not take advantage of the war in Iran to weaken Ukraine, and we will not allow Moscow to test NATO on its eastern or northern flank." Macron has also rejected lifting the sanctions and recalled that the G7 has just reaffirmed "that the price of oil should not change our sanctions policy towards Russia." France is, in fact, the only EU country that has suffered a fatality to date as a result of the conflict (the death of a non-commissioned officer during an Iranian attack on the Erbil military base in Iraq). In any case, the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has already warned that his government “does not approve of this war” and, therefore, “will not participate in it.” For now, if anything has become clear, it is that the offensive led by Donald Trump has not garnered the unconditional support of even its main allies in Europe. For example, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, who is in the midst of his campaign for the April elections (in which polls predict his first defeat in 16 years), has opted for silence, while the Italian Prime Minister, the also far-right Giorgia Meloni, has acknowledged—after initially supporting the attacks against Iran—that the offensive is “outside of international law.” Kaja Kallas has warned that EU countries, which hold very different views on how to deal with Trump, should not approach their relationship with the US solely bilaterally. Washington “doesn’t like us to be together because we become equals with them,” Kallas stated, noting how the US national security strategy and national defense strategy celebrate the “growing influence of European patriotic parties” that advocate for the dissolution of the EU. Von der Leyen Immediately after the outbreak of the conflict, Kaja Kallas issued a statement calling for “maximum restraint, the protection of civilians, and full respect for international law, including the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international humanitarian law.” International law has, in fact, come under attack from an unexpected source in recent days. Last Monday, March 9, during the EU Ambassadors' Conference 2026 held in Brussels, Von der Leyen stated that the EU cannot rely on rules-based multilateralism as the “only way to defend” its interests and even went so far as to say that the Union can no longer be the guardian of an old world order that “is gone and will not return.” Von der Leyen's words were almost immediately contradicted by the President of the European Council, António Costa, who, at the same Conference of Ambassadors, warned that the Union must support “the rules-based international order” and stressed that “violations of international law must not be accepted, neither in Ukraine, Greenland, Latin America, Africa, Gaza, nor in the Middle East.” For his part, Albares declared, in response to the President, that “Europe must defend the international order, because the alternative to the international order is disorder, it is the absence of order.” Faced with the avalanche created by her own words, Von der Leyen herself backtracked two days later during a parliamentary debate in Strasbourg on the crisis in the Middle East, in which she recalled that the European Union “was founded as a peace project” and reiterated its “unwavering commitment” to the pursuit of peace, the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respect for international law, principles that “are as fundamental today as they were at the time of our creation.”

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