Spain says it has closed its airspace to US planes involved in Iran war
Spain said it has closed its airspace to US planes involved in the Iran war, another step by Europe’s loudest critic of US and Israeli military actions in the month-long conflict.
The country earlier said the US could not use jointly operated military bases in the war that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has described as illegal, reckless and unjust.
Defence minister Margarita Robles said the same logic applied to the use of Spanish airspace.
“This 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,” Ms Robles told reporters, describing the war in Iran as “profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust”.
Mr Sanchez has called on the US, Israel and Iran to end the war, saying earlier this month: “You cannot respond to one illegality with another, because that’s how humanity’s great disasters begin.”
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said that Spain’s leaders are “bragging” about cutting off its airspace, even as Washington has pledged to defend the Nato member.
He said that the transatlantic military alliance is useful for the US, because it “allows us to station troops and aircraft and weapons in parts of the world that we wouldn’t normally have bases, and that includes in much of Europe”.
“But if Nato is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked, but then denying us basing rights when we need them, that’s not a very good arrangement,” Mr Rubio told Al Jazeera on Monday.
“That’s a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States. So all of that is going to have to be re-examined.”
After Mr Sanchez’s government denied the US use of the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain, US President Donald Trump threatened to cut trade with Madrid.
At the time, Mr Sanchez’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.
Mr Sanchez has also 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.
Spain’s new decision against a Nato ally is rare, though not unprecedented.
Nato did not comment, referring questions to national authorities.
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.
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.
France’s then-foreign minister Dominique de Villepin – despite a famed UN speech against the Bush administration’s plans to invade – told the French parliament at the time that “there are practices between allies that exist that we must respect, including overflight rights”.