{"id":11544,"date":"2026-03-30T19:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/11544\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:38:15","slug":"spain-closes-its-airspace-to-us-planes-involved-in-the-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/11544\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain closes its airspace to US planes involved in the Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Spain said Monday it has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war<\/a>, another step by Europe\u2019s loudest critic<\/a> of U.S. and Israeli military actions in the monthlong conflict.<\/p>\n

The country<\/a> earlier said the U.S. couldn\u2019t use jointly operated military bases in the war that Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez has described as illegal, reckless and unjust. Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the same logic applied to the use of Spanish airspace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was made perfectly clear to the American military and forces from the very beginning. Therefore, neither the bases are authorized, nor, of course, is the use of Spanish airspace authorized for any actions related to the war in Iran,\u201d Robles told reporters, describing the war in Iran as \u201cprofoundly illegal and profoundly unjust.\u201d<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez has called on the U.S., Israel and Iran to end the war, saying earlier this month: \u201cYou cannot respond to one illegality with another, because that\u2019s how humanity\u2019s great disasters begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

After S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government denied the U.S. use of the Rota and Mor\u00f3n military bases in southern Spain, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut trade<\/a> with Madrid.<\/p>\n

The U.S. made trade threats last year, too, when S\u00e1nchez said his government wouldn\u2019t increase its defense spending<\/a> in accordance with a deal agreed to by other NATO members following Trump\u2019s pressure.<\/p>\n

At the time, S\u00e1nchez\u2019s government said Spain could meet its military commitments by spending 2.1% of gross domestic product on defense, instead of the 5% the rest of the 32-nation military alliance agreed upon.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1nchez also has been among the most vocal critics of Israel\u2019s actions in the war in Gaza, which has invited criticism from Israel\u2019s government on several occasions.<\/p>\n

No comment from NATO<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s new decision against a NATO ally is rare, though not unprecedented. NATO did not comment, referring questions to national authorities.<\/p>\n

In an incident that strained transatlantic ties, France and Italy blocked the U.S. military from using their airspace for an operation targeting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in 1986.<\/p>\n

In 2003, Turkey refused to allow U.S. troops to use its territory to invade Iraq, though it did allow overflights. France and Germany firmly opposed that war but allowed U.S. and British fighter jets to fly over their airspace.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s then-Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin \u2014 despite a famed U.N. speech against the Bush administration\u2019s plans to invade \u2014 told the French Parliament at the time that \u2033there are practices between allies that exist that we must respect, including overflight rights.\u2033<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Spain said Monday it has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7974,38,591,50,624,8,19,96,102,7916,275,98,9,599,359,67,535,593,7,100,226,106],"class_list":{"0":"post-11544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-dominique-de-villepin","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-george-w-bush","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-iran-war","16":"tag-israel-government","17":"tag-margarita-robles","18":"tag-mideast-wars","19":"tag-military-and-defense","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","22":"tag-pedro-sanchez","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-spain","25":"tag-spain-government","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-united-states-government","28":"tag-war-and-unrest","29":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116319820400738577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}