Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has rebuked the attacks from US President Donald Trump, who threatened Madrid for not following his line and providing military support to attacking Iran.
In a televised address to the nation, Sánchez mentioned the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, but also the Iraq war over 20 years ago, to state that his government’s position was simple: "No to war".
During a press conference on Tuesday, Trump attacked Spain for not letting it use its military bases for the attack on Iran. The US base in Andalusia goes back to an agreement with former Spanish dictator Francisco Franco from 1953.
"Spain has been terrible," Trump said during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. He also attacked Madrid for not having increased its military spending to 5% of GDP, as required by the new NATO objective pushed by Washington.
In his speech from his official residence on Wednesday, Sánchez responded by saying that Spain would not contribute to more instability in the Middle East.
"We are not going to be complicit in something bad for the world simply because of the fear of reprisals from some," he told the Spanish people.
Madrid, Kingdom of Spain; September 1, 2025.- Pedro Sánchez, President of Spain. Credit: Belga
The Spanish socialist says that while his government "repudiates" and "rejects" the ayatollah regime, Spain would not join in the violence carried out by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He rejected the following the US into this war "as servants", adding that "this is not a way of leading" the response to this new conflict in the Middle East.
"We are opposed to this disaster", he continued, believing that this position was shared by "many other governments" and "millions of citizens who, throughout Europe, in North America and the Middle East, do not ask for another war and economic and security instability.
Later on Wednesday, the European Commission expressed support for Spain over Trump's threat, saying it was "ready" to defend EU interests.
"Any threat against a Member State is by definition a threat against the EU. This is a competence of the EU trade," said European Commissioner for the Internal Market Stéphane Séjourné, who is French but grew up in Spain and Argentina.
"I want to be very clear here, from this point of view, the Commission actually deals with the EU’s competency on trade. If you threaten one particular country… well, that’s what we’ve seen with Greenland. I think we saw that there was a lot of unity."
The French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed solidarity with Spain over the attacks.
Since the start of the latest war, most EU countries have navigated a tight rope of simultaneously condemning the Iranian regime, supporting the end of Iran's nuclear program, while also calling for a return to the negotiating table.
A few European countries have condemned the illegality of the attack on Iran under international law, including France, Belgium, Finland, Norway, and, of course. Spain.
The UK, France and Germany have said they will offer the US and Israel "defensive" military help, particularly to protect the UK air base in Cyprus, due to the questions over international law.
For its part, Iran has warned European countries not to intervene in its ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States. It said that "any such action against Iran will be seen as complicity with the aggressors".
This story was updated. Belga News Agency contributed to the report.
