{"id":81661,"date":"2026-04-24T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/81661\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:14:08","slug":"spanish-pm-sanchez-criticises-trumps-war-on-iran-as-illegal-and-a-big-mistake-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/81661\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish PM S\u00e1nchez criticises Trump\u2019s war on Iran as \u2018illegal and a big mistake\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decision by the United States<\/a> to start a war in Iran <\/a>has been proven to be a \u201cbig mistake\u201d, Spain\u2019s<\/a> leftwing prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>, has said. <\/p>\n

An outspoken critic of US president Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> military campaign, S\u00e1nchez said diplomacy was the only \u201cway out\u201d of the crisis that has shook the global economy. <\/p>\n

The war in Iran and resulting disruption to oil and gas prices was one of the most pressing points on the agenda during a two-day EU <\/a>summit in Cyprus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Asked about the reliability of the US as a military partner, S\u00e1nchez said Washington had not sought any input from European allies before starting its war in the Middle East. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that most [European] leaders have already said that this is not our war. I think what matters now is how do we find a solution?\u201d the prime minister said. \u201cFrom my point of view, this war is illegal, it is a big mistake,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

European governments have been struggling to contain the fallout from the conflict, which has seen energy prices soar, without becoming directly involved in efforts to clear the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane blocked by Iran. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again we have to handle many different crises at the same time,\u201d said Denmark\u2019s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, on Friday in Nicosia. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation in the Middle East, combined with the situation in Ukraine, [a] more aggressive Russia and the uncertainty delivered from the US puts Europe in a very difficult and also a dangerous situation,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Kaja Kallas, the EU\u2019s top envoy on foreign affairs, said the freedom of navigation for ships and tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz had to be \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d in peace talks between Washington and Tehran. <\/p>\n

Any deal could not allow Iran to collect tolls from ships it permitted to pass the critical waterway, through which the Gulf supplies about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas, she said. <\/p>\n

Kallas, who is viewed as a hawk when it comes to the Iranian regime, said the world did not want to end up with a \u201cmore dangerous Iran\u201d after the war. <\/p>\n

US negotiations had to focus on Tehran\u2019s production of missiles and its aid to proxy forces in the region, such as Hizbullah, as well as its nuclear programme, she said. <\/p>\n

There was a broad welcome that a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbullah militants in Lebanon had been extended for another three weeks. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s earlier strikes on civilian infrastructure during the fighting had been \u201creckless\u201d and \u201cabsolutely disproportionate\u201d, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said. <\/p>\n

Nikos Christodoulides, president of the republic of Cyprus, said it was \u201cnot possible to achieve de-escalation in the region without the active participation of the European Union\u201d. <\/p>\n

Christodoulides said that meant the EU needed to deepen its ties to partners in the region, which included the new government in Syria. Several of those partners were invited by Cyprus to join the EU talks on Friday. <\/p>\n

President of Egypt Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, president of Lebanon Joseph Aoun, crown prince of Jordan Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa travelled to the Mediterranean island to join a working lunch at the end of the summit. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision by the United States to start a war in Iran has been proven to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8395,38,1693,1092,34,1218],"class_list":{"0":"post-81661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-denmark","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-iran","13":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116459868363359369","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81661","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=81661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}