The first blunt scene took place last week. The decision of the Government of Pedro Sánchez to send the ship Maritime Action Furor P-46 to escort the Global International Flotilla Sumud was a milestone in contemporary Spanish foreign policy. The second, which has been known a few hours ago, has a more “nuclear” range: Spain is vetoing the sending of weapons from the United States to Israel.
Solidarity and geopolitics. As we said, sending Furor P-46 It is included in the flotilla safety Integrated by half a hundred civil vessels with activists from 45 countries, including figures such as Greta Thunberg or Ada Colau, which seeks to take help to Gaza and symbolically break the Israeli naval block, after having suffered drones attacks in Greek waters.
With more than 65,000 dead Palestinians Since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in October 2023 and a population undergoing hunger, forced displacements and ruins, the Spanish gesture becomes political and moral relevance. Sanchez defended In the UN General Assembly that international law and safety of navigation in the Mediterranean are respected, stressing that Spain will not remain indifferent to a humanitarian catastrophe of this magnitude.
The furor P-46 in front of the Italian. The Spanish deployment contrasts with the Italian response under the command of Giorgia Meloni, which despite criticizing the mission as “unnecessary and dangerous,” said two frigates, have sent two frigates, The Virginio Fasan and The alpineboth with anti -submarine combat capabilities, long -range missiles and crews of more than 160 sailors. The furor P-46, on the other hand, is a maritime action ship smaller (2,840 tons, 93.9 meters in length and 51 crew members), armed with a cannon 76 mm pick autumn and two MK-38 machine guns.
Although limited in military power against Italian frigates, their deployment transmits a different message: It is not a matter of war, but of symbolic protection of civilians and a commitment to international legality. If you want, even the fact that the machine guns of the fury are of Israeli origin adds a paradox loaded with meanings, placing Spain in a field where diplomacy mixes with symbolic and political pressure.
The furor P-46
A historical veto. The other face of the Spanish strategy has been THE VETO TO TRANSIT for the bases of Rota and Morón of American aircraft and ships loaded with armament for Israel. Although the bilateral agreement 1988 defense grants the United States wide prerogatives Use, Madrid retains the last word and has applied the clauses that exclude “controversial charges”.
In other words, this has forced, for example, DESCRIBE F-35 fighters Israelis towards the Azores, and even took the official plane of Netanyahu To avoid space Spanish aerial to go to the UN. The measure reflects a will to exercise full sovereignty in strategic infrastructure, unchecking American logic without breaking the alliance. If in 2002 the government of José María Aznar allowed, through A secret orderthat planes with prisoners for Guantanam Mark distance With Washington, aware that Gaza’s political sensitivity does not admit ambiguities.
Historical comparative: from Iraq and Libya to Gaza. The current position inevitably recalls Spanish management in previous conflicts. In 2003, Aznar aligned with George W. Bush and Tony Blair in the invasion of Iraq, in a decision that It generated massive rejection in Spanish society and ended up eroding its political capital. A decade later, in 2011, under the government of Zapatero, Spain participated In the intervention of NATO in Libya, sending fighters and frigates in combat operations against Gaddafi, although presenting it as part of a Civil Protection Mission.
In both cases, Spain acted as an obedient ally within the Atlantic framework, prioritizing cohesion with Washington and Brussels about the affirmation of its own policy. Loop represents the reverse: Now the nation is placed as a critical voice in the EU, sending a ship Not to fightbut to protect a civil flotilla, and prohibiting the transit of weapons towards a traditional ally in the United States such as Israel.
The Mediterranean as a board. The scenario is not accidental. The Eastern Mediterranean has become a space of geopolitical friction where the interests of Israel, Türkiye, Egypt, Greece and now of the European powers converge. With its involvement, Spain seeks to strengthen its profile as Mediterranean power With your own agenda.
He Furor shipping P-46 and the Veto to Rota and Morón They place Madrid in the thin line between humanitarian solidarity and diplomatic pressure, between the symbolic gesture and the strategic calculation. The message, a priori, is clear: Spain does not intend to be a mere spectator or a simple appendix of American politics, but an actor who intends to recover space on a board where the EU still seeks a common voice.
Giro and projection. The combination of measures configures a Background change In Spanish foreign policy. Of secondary partner in Iraq and Libya, Spain aims to be actor with proper name In Gaza, articulating a strategy that combines three axes: Humanitarian solidarityDefense of International Law and affirmation of sovereignty in its strategic bases.
If you want also, when betting on a line different from Washington’s (I had already done it With the “rearme”) and align with a speech closer to European public opinion, the Sánchez government seeks to reposition the nation as moral power in the Mediterranean and as a reference in the defense of humanitarian causes. Of course, it remains to be seen if this strategy will be sustainable in the face of diplomatic pressure and tensions with allied partners, but what it seems indisputable right now is that it marks a historical turn regarding the role that Spain had played in international conflicts during the last decades.
Image | Pikiwikisrael, Carlosvdehabsburg
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