Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks to the media on the day of his meeting with Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris to discuss recognizing a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, April 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Iran has expressed support for Spain’s decision to block US forces from using its bases for military operations against the Islamic regime, leaving Madrid as the only major EU country to have explicitly criticized the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

In response to an online news report saying that the Spanish government “denies that the US is using its bases in Spain for the war against Iran,” the Iranian embassy in Spain reshared the headline and added, “Iran fully recognizes and respects this position, which is in accordance with international law.”

Irán reconoce plenamente y respeta esta posición, que está en consonancia con el derecho internacional. https://t.co/1U06SCqaWk

— Embajada de Irán en España (@IraninSpain) March 2, 2026

Spain, one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of the joint US-Israel operation, quickly condemned the strikes against Iran after they began on Saturday.

“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said.

“You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law,” the socialist leader added the next day.

US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a trade embargo on Spain on Tuesday after the NATO ally refused to let the US military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.

“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut off all dealings” with Spain.

“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said.

Trump also referenced Spain‘s refusal to adhere to US calls for all NATO members to spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense.

“Spain has absolutely nothing that we need,” he said. “All business having to do with Spain, I have the right to stop it. Embargoes – do anything I want with it – and we may do that with Spain.”

According to media reports, at least 11 US tanker aircraft left bases in southern Spain late Sunday evening, and at least seven arrived at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, with two others headed toward France. The others’ destinations remained unknown.

While Spain has strongly condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iranian regime targets, other European countries have denounced Iran’s counterstrikes on civilian sites across the Middle East.

Israel lambasted Spain’s response to the conflict.

“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told Euronews on Sunday. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares pushed back on Sa’ar’s characterization, labeling the accusation “absurd and ridiculous.” The Spanish diplomat added that “we have condemned every human rights violation from the Iranian regime and we are with the people of Iran.”

In an interview on Spanish television on Sunday, Albares said the nation’s bases “will not be used for anything that falls outside the agreement with the United States and the United Nations Charter.”

Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, Spain has been one of Israel’s fiercest critics, launching a fierce anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining and isolating the Jewish state on the international stage.

Earlier this month, police raided a steel factory near Bilbao, northern Spain, questioning staff over suspected violations of the country’s arms embargo on Israel

The Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) group, a pro-Israel organization in Spain, described the move as part of a “pattern of political pressure on economic actors for ideological reasons.”

“The combination of state intervention with a political climate that tolerates — and sometimes encourages — aggressive activism against Israel and its partners creates a scenario in which civil liberties and the legal security of companies and citizens are steadily eroded,” ACOM said in a statement.

In September, the Spanish government passed a law to take “urgent measures to stop the genocide in Gaza,” banning trade in defense material and dual-use products from Israel, as well as imports and advertising of products originating from Israeli settlements.

That same month, Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel and Sánchez accused Israel of “exterminating defenseless people” in Gaza and “breaking all the rules of humanitarian law.”

Sánchez’s administration expanded the boycotted products to ban imports from Israeli communities in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.

While pursuing such policies and attacking Israel verbally, Sánchez has facing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility.

Amid a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment, Lorenzo Rodríguez, mayor of Castrillo Mota de Judíos in northern Spain, accused the country’s leader in September of “fueling a discourse of hatred” against Israel and the Jewish people.

“The government is fostering antisemitism that will prove deeply damaging for Spain,” Rodríguez said in an interview with the local outlet El Español.

Comparing Spain’s attitude toward Israel with other countries, Sa’ar stated over the weekend that “the obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela.”