" ‘Blunt rejection’ of US-Israeli attack on Iran and ‘call to learn from mistakes of the past’ - snap analysis
Sam Jones (Guardian)
in Madrid
Sánchez’s defiant speech may have been made in response to Trump’s threat to cut off all trade with Spain, but his words were also aimed every bit as much at other EU leaders (and at Spain’s political class).
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez Photograph: Fernando Calvo/MONCLOA PALACE/EPA
The PM was keen to stress that his government’s refusal to facilitate the attacks on Iran was firmly in line with its stance on Ukraine and Gaza.
He repeatedly insisted that a long and unpredictable war with Iran would only bring more death, more global uncertainty and more economic upheaval.
Not for nothing did he invoke the 2003 invasion of Iraq – the massively controversial and counterproductive military adventure that was so enthusiastically backed by Spain’s conservative prime minister at the time, José María Aznar:
“A war that, in theory, was said to be waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy, and guarantee global security, but which, in reality, seen in retrospect, produced the opposite effect. It unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”
While no one could predict the exact course of the Iran conflict, he added, “what we do know is that a fairer international order will not emerge from it. Nor will it produce higher wages, better public services, or a healthier environment”.
In one of the most pointed passages of the speech, Sánchez also took aim at those who use war as a diversionary tactic, or as a means of enriching their cronies:
“It 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 – the same ones as always; the only ones who profit when the world stops building hospitals and starts building missiles.”
All in all, the speech is a blunt rejection of the US and Israel’s strikes and a call for Europe to learn from the mistakes of the past, to stand together, and to respect international law.
His words stand in sharp, and uncomfortable, contrast to the more weaselly utterances of others.
Let’s see how his fellow leader respond to the call in the final section:
“The government of Spain stands with those it must stand with. It stands with the values that our parents and grandparents enshrined in our constitution.
Spain stands with the founding principles of the European Union. It stands with the Charter of the United Nations. It stands with international law and, therefore, stands with peace and peaceful coexistence between countries and their harmonious coexistence.
We stand with many other governments that share our views, and with millions of citizens throughout Europe, North America, and the Middle East, who ask not for more war or uncertainty, but more peace and prosperity. Because the former only benefits a few. And the latter benefits us all.”
, or is it?)
it’s the other way around, other, countries are following their lead. This is serious stuff.