Spain has denied the US permission to use jointly operated military bases on its territory to attack Iran as Madrid stepped up its criticism of the \u201cunjustified and dangerous military intervention\u201d.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s socialist prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has explicitly condemned the US and Israel\u2019s \u201cunilateral military action\u201d<\/a> against Iran, warning that it is contributing to \u201ca more hostile and uncertain international order\u201d. The rebukes have been reinforced by his government\u2019s refusal to allow the US to use bases in Rota and Mor\u00f3n for the continuing strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares, Spain\u2019s foreign minister, said on Monday that while the government wanted \u201cdemocracy, freedom and fundamental rights for the Iranian people\u201d, it would on no account allow its bases to be used in the ongoing military action.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be very clear and very plain,\u201d he told Telecinco. \u201cThe bases are not being used \u2013 nor will they be used \u2013 for anything that is not in the agreement [with the US], nor for anything that isn\u2019t covered by the UN charter.\u201d<\/p>\n The defence minister, Margarita Robles, was similarly emphatic, saying neither of the bases had been used in the US military<\/a> operation. \u201cThere is a deal with the US over these bases, but our understanding of the deal is that operations have to comply with international legal frameworks and that there has to be international support for them,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n Maps compiled by the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 showed that 15 US aircraft have left Rota and Mor\u00f3n since the US and Israel<\/a> began their attacks over the weekend. At least seven of the planes were shown to have landed at Ramstein airbase in Germany.<\/p>\n US defence officials declined to comment on the reasons for the departures.<\/p>\n On Saturday, S\u00e1nchez said Donald Trump<\/a> and Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s offensive was making the world less stable and called for a lasting political solution to the conflict.<\/p>\n He returned to the theme in a speech in Barcelona on Sunday. \u201cToday, more than ever, it\u2019s vital to remember that you can be against a hateful regime \u2013 as Spanish society is as a whole when it comes to the Iranian regime \u2013 and, at the same time, against an unjustified and dangerous military intervention that is outside international law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n S\u00e1nchez\u2019s blunt condemnations are unlikely to endear him to Trump, who last year tore into Spain<\/a> for refusing to accept Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP<\/a>. But the Spanish prime minister\u2019s comments are in keeping with his status as one of Europe\u2019s most outspoken leaders. S\u00e1nchez has been among the most vocal European critics<\/a> of both Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and the EU\u2019s response to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other European leaders have sought to hedge their bets over Trump\u2019s latest attempt to secure regime change abroad. The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, did not initially allow US forces to use Diego Garcia or any UK airbases because of doubts about the legality of the strikes. But he changed his position on Sunday<\/a> after Iran launched a wave of retaliatory missile and drone attacks on targets across the Middle East \u2013 one of which hit a UK airbase in Cyprus.<\/p>\n In a joint statement with France and Germany released earlier on Sunday, the UK said: \u201cWe will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran\u2019s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.\u201d<\/p>\n