Why Spain is opposing Israel and the US over Gaza and Iran

ELI5/TLDR

Spain has become the loudest critic in Europe of Israel’s war on Gaza and the US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has barred American forces from using two major US bases on Spanish soil, closed Spanish airspace to planes involved in the Iran strikes, and pulled his ambassador from Tel Aviv. The video argues this is not an accident. It is the product of a specific Spanish history: civil war, dictatorship, a 1953 deal with Washington that legitimized Franco, the 2004 Madrid train bombings, and eight centuries of cultural entanglement with the Arab world.

The Full Story

The break with Washington

The trigger is February 2026. The US and Israel launch joint airstrikes on Iran. Within a day, Sanchez goes on television and calls it unjustifiable and outside international law. A week later he announces that the US cannot use the Rota naval base or Morón air base for offensive operations tied to the war. These are not symbolic installations. Rota is one of NATO’s most important naval assets. The Pentagon has used both since 1953. On March 30th, Spain closes its airspace to American planes involved in the strikes.

“Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”

That is Trump, reacting. Later he threatens a trade embargo. The problem is that Spain does not negotiate trade with the US directly. It does so through the EU, which makes tariff retaliation mostly theatre.

Why Spain, and not France or Germany

The video’s answer is memory. Spain’s 20th century was unusually brutal and unusually unresolved.

A civil war from 1936 to 1939 killed up to half a million people. Franco’s side won with direct help from Hitler’s Condor Legion and Mussolini’s air force. The bombing of Guernica became Picasso’s painting. When Franco died in 1975, the country transitioned to democracy through what historians call the Pacto del Olvido, the pact of forgetting. Archives sealed. No prosecutions. Families are still digging up relatives from unmarked graves.

Then the 2004 Madrid train bombings. 193 commuters killed on four trains three days before a general election. The sitting prime minister Aznar blamed Basque separatists. It was Al-Qaeda, radicalized in part by Spain’s participation in the Iraq War, a war 90% of the Spanish public had opposed. Aznar lost the election. The new government pulled troops out of Iraq within weeks.

The lesson stuck: joining somebody else’s war gets your civilians killed at home.

The Arab connection

From 711 to 1492 most of the Iberian Peninsula was under Muslim rule. The architecture of Córdoba and Seville, thousands of Spanish words, the names of rivers like the Guadalquivir, all come from that period. In 1969, under Franco of all people, Spain recognized the PLO. It was one of the first Western countries to do so. One commentator in the video is honest about the motive:

“That’s a mix of pragmatism, opportunism, and some genuine retelling of their own national history. Spain was not a colonial power in the Middle East… It has proven advantageous for Spain politically and economically to maintain good relationships with the Arab world.”

Spain has positioned itself as the Western country that can talk to everyone in the region. That identity is now being cashed in.

The escalation ladder

Sanchez did not jump to withdrawing ambassadors overnight. The timeline is layered:

May 2024: Spain recognizes Palestinian statehood alongside Ireland and Norway.
2024: Sanchez uses the word “genocide” publicly, an early use by a European head of state.
June 2024: Spain joins South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel.
July 2024: A Spanish court opens a war crimes probe into Netanyahu over a raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza.
June 2025: Spain rejects NATO’s proposed 5% of GDP defense spending target.
September 2025: Parliament passes a full arms embargo on Israel, including dual-use equipment.
March 2026: Ambassador withdrawn. Bases closed. Airspace closed.

Domestic politics as ambush

One of the sharper observations in the video is about how Sanchez has used all of this at home. By staking out the anti-war position early and hard, he has forced the conservative PP and the far-right Vox into the uncomfortable position of defending a US president who is threatening Spanish sovereignty.

“He basically played his pieces leaving the right in checkmate… traitors to their own country because they were aligned with a president who not only had illegally attacked Iran together with Israel, but also threatening to illegally attack Spain.”

69% of Spaniards oppose the war on Iran. 77% view Trump unfavorably. The numbers cover him.

Key Takeaways

Spain has barred US forces from Rota and Morón bases for offensive operations tied to the Iran war and closed its airspace to US planes involved.
The Spanish ambassador to Israel has been withdrawn.
Spain’s stance is rooted in specific historical memory: civil war, Franco dictatorship, the 1953 Pact of Madrid, the 2004 Madrid bombings, and opposition to the 2003 Iraq War.
Spain recognized Palestinian statehood in May 2024 and joined South Africa’s ICJ genocide case in June 2024.
A full arms embargo on Israel was passed by the Spanish Parliament in September 2025.
Trump’s threatened trade embargo is largely symbolic because Spain’s trade policy runs through the EU.
Sanchez’s stance polls well at home and boxes in the domestic right.
Spain’s cultural and diplomatic ties to the Arab world go back to eight centuries of Al-Andalus and a 1969 recognition of the PLO.
The video frames Spain as a possible leader of a new “non-aligned movement of middle countries.”

Claude’s Take

This is a TRT World production, so the first filter matters. TRT is funded by the Turkish state, and Ankara has its own reasons to amplify any European government that breaks with Washington and Israel. The language choices reflect that. “Genocidal war” is used without qualification. The US strikes on Iran are called “unprovoked.” Whether you agree with those framings or not, notice that they are framings, not descriptions. A BBC or NPR treatment of the same facts would hedge harder.

That said, the underlying facts check out and the historical argument is interesting. The chain from the 1953 Pact of Madrid through the 2004 bombings to 2026 is a real line. Spain has positioned itself differently from France, Germany, or the UK on Gaza for two years now, and the pattern predates the Iran strikes. The point about Sanchez trapping the Spanish right is sharp and probably correct. The point about EU membership making tariff retaliation toothless is correct.

What the video undersells: Spain is running a deficit-heavy budget, Sanchez is politically fragile, and his minority government depends on regional parties that have their own reasons to want distance from Washington. Some of the “principled stance” is also a coalition-management stance. The video also does not engage seriously with the counterargument that closing NATO bases during an active US military operation is an unusually aggressive alliance move, whatever you think of the underlying war.

Score: 7. Clear timeline, decent historical framing, useful for a non-specialist. Loses points for one-sided framing and for not pressure-testing its own thesis.

Why Spain is opposing Israel and the US over Gaza and Iran | Explained