Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured yesterday that Spain “is not opposed” to the launch of an international operation in the Red Sea as long as it is different from Operation Atalanta, the mission led by Spain to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean, near the coast of Yemen.
“Spain is not opposed to the creation of any other operation, in this case in the Red Sea,” Sánchez declared during the press conference after the last Council of Ministers of the year. “What we have conveyed to our allies, both NATO and the European Union, is that we consider that Operation Atalanta does not have the characteristics nor is it the nature of the operation that is required in the Red Sea” , he warned.
“In Atalanta, what is being done there is fighting against a particular phenomenon of piracy and in the Red Sea the situation is completely different, the risk is different and obviously the nature of the challenge is different. One operation has nothing to do with another,” he continued. “We are willing and open to this operation being actually proposed by the allies, both the European Union and NATO, but obviously not within the framework or within the framework of an operation like Operation Atalanta,” he added.
Sánchez also recalled “something that seems very relevant to me because in a few hours I am going to leave for Iraq, tomorrow (today) I am going to be with the Spanish troops deployed in Iraq.” “Spain is, within the European Union, the first country that participates in the most military peace missions within the framework of NATO and, if we are not the fourth, we are the fifth within NATO,” he stated. “Therefore, Spain’s commitment to NATO and the European Union is total, it is absolute, but we understand that the umbrella, the framework under which each operation has to operate are not the same and that is what we have let the rest of the allies know,” he added.
On December 19, the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Lloyd J. Austin, announced the launch of Operation Guardian of Prosperity in order to guarantee the security of maritime traffic in the Red Sea in the face of “the recent escalation of attacks reckless actions of the Houthis from Yemen”, which “threaten the free flow of trade, endanger the lives of innocent sailors and violate International Law”.
“Operation Prosperity Guardian brings together several countries, including the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain, to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, with the aim of guaranteeing freedom of navigation for all countries and strengthening regional security and prosperity,” Austin added. Sources from Moncloa acknowledged to The Diplomat that they had been somewhat surprised by the speed with which Austin mentioned Spain among the countries in the operation without waiting for a decision to be made on the matter.
After the US announcement, Spain warned that it would only get involved in this operation if it had the support of the EU and NATO and that it would not act unilaterally, but the Ministry of Defense later went further and announced that Spain would not participate in the operation. mission and called for a “new and specific” European mission.
In another subsequent statement, Defense assured that there is no veto from Spain to an EU mission in the Red Sea and that our country “is and will always be a serious and reliable ally, committed to the EU, NATO and the UN.” “The commitment of Spain and its Armed Forces to peace is total and absolute,” he added. Likewise, he insisted that any maritime security operation in the Red Sea “has to be a specific mission with its own entity in which the Naval Forces of the European countries that wish to participate participate and not a mere extension of the Atalanta operation.”
The Spanish position was not liked in Washington and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, brought up the issue in a telephone conversation that he had on Friday with Sánchez. In a statement, the White House reported that both leaders had highlighted “the importance of ensuring that the conflict in Gaza does not expand into the region” and had included “condemnation of the continued Houthi attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.”
Instead, the Houthi rebels have praised “Spain’s refusal to be carried away by American and British lies on maritime navigation.” The praise of the Yemeni rebels has not pleased the Government of Pedro Sánchez, as The Diplomat was able to verify from diplomatic sources, given the negative consequences that Hamas’s applause for Sánchez’s position on Gaza has had for its image.
