{"id":14515,"date":"2026-03-11T15:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/14515\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T15:25:07","slug":"spain-downgrades-its-diplomatic-ties-with-israel-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/14515\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain downgrades its diplomatic ties with Israel \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a sign of the bad state of relations between Spain and Israel, Madrid on Wednesday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boe.es\/boe\/dias\/2026\/03\/11\/pdfs\/BOE-A-2026-5614.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">permanently withdrew<\/a> its ambassador to Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p>The diplomatic downgrade comes after years of tense exchanges between both governments. Spain has been a leading critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s military operations in Gaza and, this month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez blasted Israel for joining the U.S. in its \u201cillegitimate\u201d attack on Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Madrid recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv, veteran diplomat Ana Mar\u00eda Salom\u00f3n P\u00e9rez, last September, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gidonsaar\/status\/1967298828777959632\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">accused<\/a> S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government of inciting a \u201cpro-Palestinian mob\u201d and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/israel-spain-prime-minister-protests-palestine-pedro-sanchez\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">banned<\/a> Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda D\u00edaz and Minister of Youth Sira Rego from entering the country.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to definitively retire the ambassador is a highly symbolic move that underscores the degradation of ties between the two countries. With the ambassador\u2019s removal, Spain\u2019s diplomatic representation will now be handled by its charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires, a lower-ranking official whose status is meant to reflect the downgraded relations.<\/p>\n<p>Madrid established diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv in 1986, and the two countries enjoyed good relations until the outbreak of the war in Gaza in 2023. Since then, S\u00e1nchez has repeatedly demanded Israel <a href=\"http:\/\/1841188366861418843\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">respect international law<\/a>, while Netanyahu\u2019s government has accused the Spanish prime minister of <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/IsraelMFA\/status\/1965001082217660749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">waging an \u201canti-Israeli\u201d campaign<\/a> in a bid to distract the domestic public from corruption scandals at home. Israel recalled its ambassador to Madrid in May 2024, shortly after Spain announced its intention to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/spain-recognize-palestine-state-statehood-by-july-2024-foreign-minister-jose-manuel-albares\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recognize<\/a> the state of Palestine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a sign of the bad state of relations between Spain and Israel, Madrid on Wednesday permanently withdrew&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[41,7833,34,37,179,498,1217,1218,2083,51,36,7834,3616],"class_list":{"0":"post-14515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-iran","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-military","13":"tag-palestine","14":"tag-pedro-sanchez","15":"tag-spain","16":"tag-spanish-politics","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-war","19":"tag-yolanda-diaz","20":"tag-youth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116211241594211675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}