The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has responded to Donald Trump’s extraordinary threat to cut off all trade with Spain over his government’s refusal to facilitate the US’s ongoing attacks against Iran, comparing the growing conflict in the Middle East to playing “Russian roulette with the destiny of millions”.
Sánchez, who has been one of the most vociferous European critics of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, said his government’s position on the widening instability could be summed up in three words: “No to war.”
In a section of the speech that appeared to directly address Trump’s threats to end all trade with Spain, the prime minister said his country would “not be complicit in something that is bad for the world – and that is also contrary to our values and interests – simply out of fear of reprisals from someone”.
On Tuesday, Trump had rounded on Madrid for refusing the US permission to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain to continue its attacks in Iran. “Spain has been terrible,” Trump said during a meeting with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to “cut off all dealings” with the European country.
In his address on Wednesday, Sánchez called on the US, Israel and Iran to stop their war before it was too late, saying: “You can’t respond to one illegality with another because that’s how humanity’s great disasters begin.”
He added: “You can’t play Russian roulette with the destiny of millions … Nobody knows for sure what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear. But we must be prepared, as the proponents say, for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious economic consequences on a global scale.”
He pointedly invoked the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was supported by his conservative predecessor José María Aznar, as a warning of the looming dangers. Sánchez said that while that war ostensibly had been intended “to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy, and to guarantee global security”, it had instead “unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity our continent has suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall”.
Now that sounds like a leader, not a despot.. SAY ‘NO’ TO WAR! RESIST!
A wise, intelligent, and well versed leader. Too bad we have the opposite of that.
Even if we get rid of trump, his successor, while smarter and not on mental decline, is just as bad and maybe worse. I say that not about any tendency to bomb other countries, but his abject hatred for liberal and progressive concepts and people. He hates immigrants, probably more than trump. He could be capable of violating constitutional protections in ways that would make it difficult to nail him. He is not the bumbling, stumbling sort.
The upside is that he would like fire trump's entire cabinet, but for maybe Stephen Miller. That would be very bad if he kept Miller.
In any case, I am heartened to read the words of a rational leader who isn't going to bend to ridiculous, economy-damaging threats that are nowhere near as terrible as supporting this insane, unnecessary war.
on March 4, 2026, 7:37 am
