{"id":503152,"date":"2026-03-04T12:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503152\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T12:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:08:10","slug":"no-to-war-sanchez-doubles-down-after-trump-threat-to-cut-off-trade-with-spain-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503152\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No to war\u2019: S\u00e1nchez doubles down after Trump threat to cut off trade with Spain | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has responded to Donald Trump\u2019s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain<\/a> over his government\u2019s refusal to facilitate the US\u2019s ongoing attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing \u201cRussian roulette with the destiny of millions\u201d.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez, who has been one of the most vociferous European critics<\/a> of Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza, said his government\u2019s position on the widening instability could be summed up in three words: \u201cNo to war.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a section of the speech that appeared to directly address Trump\u2019s threats to end all trade with Spain<\/a>, the prime minister said his country would \u201cnot be complicit in something that is bad for the world \u2013 and that is also contrary to our values \u200b\u200band interests \u2013 simply out of fear of reprisals from someone\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trump had rounded on Madrid for refusing the US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain to continue its attacks in Iran. \u201cSpain has been terrible,\u201d Trump said during a meeting with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to \u201ccut off all dealings\u201d with the European country.<\/p>\n

In his address on Wednesday, S\u00e1nchez called on the US, Israel and Iran<\/a> to stop their war before it was too late, saying: \u201cYou can\u2019t respond to one illegality with another because that\u2019s how humanity\u2019s great disasters begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou can\u2019t play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions \u2026 Nobody knows for sure what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear. But we must be prepared, as the proponents say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious economic consequences on a global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointedly invoked the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was supported by his conservative predecessor Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Aznar, as a warning of the looming dangers. S\u00e1nchez said that while that war ostensibly had been intended \u201cto eliminate Saddam Hussein\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy, and to guarantee global security\u201d, it had instead \u201cunleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall\u201d.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez said a government\u2019s prime responsibility was to protect and improve the lives of its citizens \u2013 and not to use geopolitics to cynical ends or to profit from war. \u201cIt is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling this duty use the smokescreen of war to hide their failure and, in the process, line the pockets of a select few \u2013 the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

During his meeting with Merz, Trump criticised Spain once again for refusing to accept Nato\u2019s proposal for member states to increase their defence spending to 5% of their GDP<\/a>. \u201cEverybody was enthusiastic about it \u2013 Germany<\/a>, everybody \u2013 and Spain didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAnd now Spain said we can\u2019t use their bases \u2013 and that\u2019s OK. We could use their bases; if we wanted, we could just fly in and use it [sic]. Nobody\u2019s going to tell us not to use it. But we don\u2019t have to. But they were unfriendly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merz said later he had told Trump privately that Spain could not be excluded from a trade agreement reached between Brussels and Washington last year. \u201cI said that Spain is a member of the European Union and we negotiate about tariffs with the United States only together or not at all,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way to treat Spain particularly badly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s position has also been defended by the European Commission, which said: \u201cThe commission will ensure that the interests of the European Union are fully protected. We stand in full solidarity with all member states and all its citizens and, through our common trade policy, stand ready to act if necessary to safeguard EU interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teresa Ribera, a former Spanish deputy prime minister who serves as the EU\u2019s green transition chief, said the EU\u2019s external trade was negotiated as a bloc and the commission was the relevant authority on the issue. \u201cAt this moment, it isn\u2019t possible to establish trade reprisals or separate trade relations \u2026 I think the most surprising thing about this fact is that the American federal government is aware of this,\u201d she told Spain\u2019s Cadena Ser radio on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spanish prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, has responded to Donald Trump\u2019s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-503152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}