{"id":355926,"date":"2026-03-30T23:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355926\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:31:13","slug":"spain-closes-airspace-to-us-planes-involved-in-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355926\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain closes airspace to US planes involved in Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spain has closed its airspace to US planes involved in the Iran war, its defence minister said, marking another step in Madrid\u2019s opposition to the US and Israel’s military actions<\/a> since they launched the war in Iran more than a month ago.<\/p>\n

The country earlier said the US couldn’t use jointly operated military bases in the conflict<\/a>, which Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez has described as illegal, reckless and unjust.<\/p>\n

Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the same logic applied to the use of Spanish airspace in the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was made perfectly clear to the American military and forces from the very beginning. Therefore, neither the bases are authorised, nor, of course, is the use of Spanish airspace authorised for any actions related to the war in Iran,\u201d Robles told reporters, and called the war in Iran \u201cprofoundly illegal and profoundly unjust\u201d.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, one of Europe’s most prominent left-wing leaders and the continent’s most outspoken critic of the conflict, called on the US, Israel and Iran to end the war, saying earlier this month: \u201cYou cannot respond to one illegality with another, because that\u2019s how humanity\u2019s great disasters begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

After S\u00e1nchez’s government denied the US use of the Rota and Mor\u00f3n military bases in southern Spain, US President Donald Trump threatened to cut trade with Madrid.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/p>\n

Spain’s Defence Minister Margarita Robles waits for the start of a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in defense ministers format at NATO headquarters in Brussels. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

The US made trade threats last year, too, when S\u00e1nchez said his government wouldn’t increase its defence spending in accordance with one agreed to by other NATO members<\/a> following Trump’s pressure.<\/p>\n

At the time, S\u00e1nchez’s government said Spain could meet its military commitments by spending 2.1% of gross domestic product on defence, instead of the 5% the rest of the 32-nation military alliance agreed upon.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez also has been among the most vocal critics of Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza, which has invited criticism from Israel’s government on several occasions.<\/p>\n

No comment from NATO<\/p>\n

Spain’s new decision against a NATO ally is rare<\/a>, though not unprecedented. NATO did not comment, referring questions to national authorities.<\/p>\n

In an incident that strained transatlantic ties, France and Italy blocked the US military from using their airspace for an operation targeting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 1986.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Turkey refused to allow US troops to use its territory to invade Iraq, though it did allow overflights. France and Germany firmly opposed that war but allowed US and British fighter jets to fly over their airspace.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s then-Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin \u2014 despite a famed UN speech against the Bush administration\u2019s plans to invade \u2014 told the French Parliament at the time that \u2033there are practices between allies that exist that we must respect, including overflight rights\u2033.<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including police keeping a watch on fuel related crime, and how do you steal 400,000 KitKats? (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spain has closed its airspace to US planes involved in the Iran war, its defence minister said, marking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,5107,43,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":{"0":"post-355926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-middle-east","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories","15":"tag-uk-europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}