Israel has removed Spain from a command center in Kiryat Gat, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar deciding Madrid will no longer participate in the CMCC, a civilian-military coordination center established under US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said the decision was made “in light of the anti-Israel obsession of the Spanish government under Pedro Sánchez and the serious harm to the interests of Israel (and also the United States), including during the war against Iran.”
Saar said: “The Sánchez government has such a blatant anti-Israel bias that it has lost any ability to serve as a constructive partner in implementing President Trump's peace plan and in the CMCC operating within it.” The ministry said Spain was formally notified and that the United States was informed in advance.
Last week, Spain’s defense minister announced that Madrid had closed its airspace to U.S. aircraft involved in strikes on Iran. The move marked an escalation in Spain’s opposition to the war, following its earlier refusal to allow the U.S. military to use two American bases in southern Spain for operations against Iran.
President Donald Trump reacted angrily to the restriction on base access and threatened to cut trade ties with Madrid. The airspace closure forced U.S. military aircraft to bypass Spain — a NATO ally — on their way to targets in the Middle East.
Sánchez has been one of the most outspoken critics of the war with Iran, describing U.S. and Israeli strikes as “reckless and illegal.” Two weeks ago, he said Netanyahu “aims to inflict on Lebanon the same destruction and suffering that was committed in Gaza”. He argued the war was aimed, among other things, at “undermining international law, destabilizing the Middle East and burying Gaza under the rubble of oblivion.”
Sánchez also accused the United States and Israel of launching the attack despite having “a nuclear agreement in hand,” which he said was rejected “without explanation, without warning allies, without legal backing and without defined objectives.” He rejected White House claims that Iran was weeks away from a nuclear weapon, saying “senior officials in U.S. security agencies have publicly stated that ‘Iran does not pose an immediate threat to the West.”
First published: 15:44, 04.10.26