The Spanish government on Monday said that it had denied the use of its military bases to U.S. forces involved in the attack on Iran, including key refueling aircraft that departed Spain for other countries on Sunday.
At least 11 U.S. KC-135T and KC-135R tanker aircraft left the southern Spanish bases of Rota and Morón late Sunday evening, after the left-wing Spanish government objected to an operation it considered outside of international law.
“Spanish military bases will not be used for anything that falls outside the agreement with the United States and the United Nations Charter,” José Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, said Sunday in an interview on Spanish television. He called the U.S.-Israeli operations “unilateral.”
The new policy is the latest criticism of the United States from Spain, which has stood out in Europe for its consistent opposition to the Trump administration, including American immigration policies, support for Israel’s war in Gaza and the military operation to abduct and arrest President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.
Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has emerged as a beacon for Europe’s frustrated progressives, who view him as one of the last unabashedly leftist voices in an increasingly right-wing wilderness. But Mr. Sánchez has also become a target for conservatives.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, told Euronews on Sunday that the Spanish government was “standing with all the tyrants of the world,” and that “is now standing with Iran.”
Mr. Sánchez has backed banning Israel from the Eurovision international song contest and was among the first European leaders to call Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip a “genocide” and to recognize a Palestinian state.
Mr. Sánchez has survived in power for nearly eight years, in part by consistently outflanking and enraging Spanish conservatives, who consider him willing to say or do anything to stay in office. Many of them consider his opposition to Mr. Trump as motivated more by domestic politics than by a moral compass. On Monday, they also portrayed him as a texting buddy of tyrants.
“With Maduro and the ayatollahs gone, his WhatsApp groups are getting empty,” Carmen Fúñez, an official of the opposition Popular Party, said in a news conference on Monday.
In the days and weeks leading up to the attack, U.S. military aircraft made use of bases in Spain for refueling and other operations involved in the military buildup in the Middle East. The bases had also been used by the United States in past conflicts and operations, including antiterrorism campaigns in Africa and in the evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021.
Spain’s defense minister, Margarita Robles, said on Monday that while there was an agreement with the United States on the use of the bases, Spain believed it only extended to use within the framework of international law. The United States and Israel, she said, had violated that framework.
Ms. Robles said the bases “could be used” in the future for humanitarian purposes.
Carlos Barragán contributed reporting from Madrid.
Jason Horowitz is the Madrid bureau chief for The Times, covering Spain, Portugal and the way people live throughout Europe.
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