Iran, Sanchez: 'Spain's position is simple: no to war'
Spanish PM responds to Trump: 'Unacceptable that some presidents use war to cover their own failures'
"Spain's position can be summed up in a few words: no to war". This is what the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, said in an institutional statement from the Palazzo de la Moncloa, in the aftermath of the threats from the US president Donald Trump to break off trade relations with Madrid over its refusal to authorise the use of the joint bases of Moron and Rota, in Andalucia, in the Israeli-US operation against Iran.
"The question is whether we are on the side of international legality and, therefore, peace," the Spanish premier also said in demanding "a diplomatic and political solution" to the conflicts in the Middle East.
"This crisis affects us and we demand all resolution on the part of the United States, Iran and Israel so that they cease hostilities before it is too late," the Spanish premier continued, warning that Madrid "will not be complicit in something harmful to the world", such as the conflict with Tehran, "only because of the fear of reprisals by some". The reference was evidently to 'The Donald'.
The 2003 war in Iraq "led to a more insecure world and a worse life" and the current US and Israeli conflict with Iran "will not lead to a fairer international order, higher wages, better public services, or a healthier environment", Sanchez explained. "The world, Europe and Spain have already been there," he said, recalling that "23 years ago the United States dragged us into a war to eliminate Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy and ensure global security. In reality it produced the opposite effect'.
According to Sanchez, that conflict caused 'insecurity, an increase in jihadist terrorism and a rise in energy prices. That was the gift of the Azores trio: a more insecure world and a worse life,' he reported. "It is too early to know whether the war in Iran will have similar consequences," the Socialist leader also noted, but he said he was certain that "a fairer international order will not come out of it".
