Spain is “indirectly” assisting the United States’ military action against Iran’s Islamic regime despite socialist PM Pedro Sánchez’s opposition to the operations, local outlets reported.
On Wednesday, Sánchez delivered a brief statement expressing his opposition to the United States and Israel’s ongoing actions against the Iranian regime, and assumed a purported neutral stance by proclaiming, “The Spanish government’s position can be summed up: no to war.”
Sánchez issued his proclamation hours after President Donald Trump threatened to cut off all trade with Spain in response to the European country’s refusal to allow the U.S. military to use its bases to strike Iran.
According to the Spanish newspaper ABC, Spain’s collaboration on several recent EU and NATO operations have turned Sánchez’s “fake ‘no to war’” proclamation into a “wet paper.”
El Mundo reports that, according to information reviewed by the newspaper, there were “no fewer” than 40 military flight movements to and from Spain’s Morón and Rota military bases between February 27 and the evening of March 5.
“Five landings and takeoffs by a Beech aircraft that used the two bases in Andalusia and the one in Torrejón for flights to and from Morocco must be subtracted from these figures,” El Mundo wrote
“Of particular note are 24 takeoffs by military aircraft — some of them on more than one mission — to carry out attacks in Iran, with stopovers in Germany and Italy,” the report continued.
El Mundo explained that during the seven days it monitored movements at the Spanish military bases, repeated “strategic transport flights” involving C-17 Globemaster, C-130 Hercules, and C-5 Super Galaxy aircraft were recorded alongside several KC-135 Stratotanker tankers, which the newspaper described as “essential” for in-flight refueling operations and were “so necessary” in 2003 during the war on Iraq.
“The pattern of activity shows clear peaks on three days — February 27, March 1, and March 5 — with up to eight movements per day, suggesting the activation of a relatively intense logistical bridge. The reason? The United States’ strategy to be able to use Spanish bases without directly exploiting them,” El Mundo wrote
ABC also reported aircraft passing through Spain’s Morón and Rota military bases en route to destinations from which they take off to the area of operations and asserted that, to circumvent the Spanish government’s veto, the newspaper asserted, U.S. aircraft “use Spanish territory but list other European bases in their flight plans.”
“They carry out maintenance in Spain and then continue on to that other point, from where they are deployed to the area of operations,” unnamed military sources claimed to ABC.
ABC also listed Spain’s recent decision to deploy the Bazán-class frigate Cristóbal Colón to Cyprus in the company of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and Greek vessels as another example of the nation’s collaboration with the United States’ military actions against Iran despite Sánchez’s opposition to it.
Another example listed by ABC is the Spanish military personnel stationed at the NATO base in Naples, Italy — who ABC reported, will be involved in the operation in Iran “in some way, even if only tangentially.” ABC also noted that Spain has a Patriot anti-missile battery deployed on the Turkish border, “which many sources attribute with detecting the missile intercepted by a U.S. ship on Wednesday.”
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