A little language practice

Good morning, I am addressing you to provide information about the position of the Government of Spain concerning the crisis that is raising in the Middle East, and about the actions we are carrying out.

As you know, last Saturday the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which responded by bombing indiscriminately nine countries in the region and a British base located in a European state, in Cyprus.

I want, above all, to express the solidarity of the Spanish people with the countries illegally attacked by the Iranian regime.

Since then, hostilities have continued, if not increased, causing hundreds of deaths in homes, in schools, in hospitals. Also causing the collapse of international stock markets and the disruption of air traffic and of the Strait of Hormuz through which, until very recently, 20% of the world’s gas and oil transited.

No one knows for certain what will happen now. Even the objectives of those who launched the first attack are unclear.

But we have to be prepared – as the promoters have said – for the possibility that this will be a long war, with numerous casualties and, therefore, with serious consequences also on a global economic scale.

The Spanish Government’s position on this situation is clear and consistent. It is the same position we have maintained in Ukraine and also in Gaza. Firstly, we reject the breach of international law that protects us all, especially the most vulnerable members, the civilian population. Secondly, we must not assume that the world can only solve its problems through conflict and bombs. And finally, we must not repeat the mistakes of the past.

In short, the position of the Government of Spain can be summed up in four words: no to war.

The world, Europe and Spain have been here before. Twenty-three years ago, another U.S. Administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East. A war which, in theory, was said at the time to be waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, to bring democracy, and to guarantee global security, but which, in reality, analysed with perspective, produced the opposite effect. It unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity that our continent had suffered since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The war in Iraq war provoked a drastic increase in jihadist terrorism, a severe migration crisis in the eastern Mediterranean and a widespread increase in energy thus impacting in the cost of the shopping basket and the cost of living. That was the gift of “the Azores trio” to the Europeans of the time. A more insecure world and a worse life.

It is true that it is still too early to know whether the Iran war will have consequences similar to those of Iraq. Whether it will lead the fall of the terrible regime of the ayatollahs in Iran or to the stabilization of the region.

What we do know is that a fairer international order will not emerge from it, nor will it produce higher wages, better public services, or a healthier environment. In fact, what we can glimpse for the moment is more economic uncertainty and the raise of oil and gas prices.

That is why Spain is against this disaster, because we understand that governments are here to improve people’s lives, to provide solutions to problems, not to make people’s lives worse.

And it is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are incapable of fulfilling that task make use of war to hide their failure whilst filling the pockets of a few—the usual ones. The only ones who win when the world stops building hospitals in order to build missiles.

Given this situation, the progressive coalition Government will do the same as it has done in other conflicts and international crises.

First, we are assisting the Spanish men and women who are in the Middle East, we are going to help them return to our country—if, of course, that is their wish. The foreign service and the army are working day and night to organize evacuation operations.

It is clear that the operations are very delicate because the airspace of the region is not safe and because the airport’s network is severely affected by the attacks. But our compatriots can be certain that we are going to protect them and that we will bring them back home.

Second, the Government of Spain is studying scenarios and possible measures to help households, workers, businesses, and the self-employed, so that they may mitigate the economic impact of this conflict, should it become necessary.

Thanks to the dynamism of our economy and also to the responsibility shown by the Government’s fiscal policy, Spain has the resources needed to face this crisis once again.

We have the capacity, and also the political will, and we will do so hand in hand with social agents, as we did during the pandemic, the energy crisis, or, recently, the tariff crisis.

Third, we are going to cooperate, as we have always done, with all the countries in the region that advocate for peace and compliance with international law, which are two sides of the same coin, supporting them with the diplomatic and also material resources required.

We will work with our European allies on a coordinated and effective response. And we will continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine and in Palestine, two places that deserve not to be forgotten.

And lastly, the Government will continue to demand a ceasefire and a diplomatic resolution to this war. And I want to underline that the appropriate word is “demand.” Because Spain is a full member of the European Union, of NATO, and of the international community. And because this crisis also affects us, Europeans, and consequently Spanish people.

And that is why we have to demand full resolution from the United States, from Iran, from Israel, so that they stop before it is too late.

I have said it many times, and I shall repeat it once more: you cannot answer to an illegality with another illegality, because that is how the great catastrophes of humanity begin.

Let us remember how, before the start of the First World War in the 20th century, in August 1914, someone asked the German chancellor back then how had the World War I begun. And he replied, shrugging his shoulders and saying, literally: “I wish I knew.” I wish I knew.

Very often great wars break out due to a chain of responses that get out of hand, because of miscalculations, technical failures, unforeseen events.

Therefore, we must learn from history, we cannot play Russian roulette with the fate of millions of people.

The powers involved in this conflict must immediately cease hostilities and choose dialogue and diplomacy.

And the rest of us must act with coherence, defending now the same values that we defend when we talk about Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, or Greenland.

Because the question is not whether we are in favor or not of the ayatollahs. No one is. Certainly not the Spanish people, and of course not the Government of Spain.

The question is whether we are or not on the side of international law and, therefore, of peace.

The Spanish society always repudiated Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq, but this did not entail support to the war in Iraq, because it was illegal, because it was unjust, and because it did not provide a real resolution to almost any of the problems it claimed to solve.

In the same way, we repudiate the regime of Iran, which represses and vilely kills its citizens, particularly women.

But at the same time, we reject this conflict and call for a diplomatic and political solution.

Some will accuse us of being naive for doing so, but to be naive is thinking that the solution is violence. To be naive is believing that democracies or respect between nations arise from ruins. Or thinking that blind and servile followership is a form of leadership.

On the contrary, I believe this position is not at all naive; it is coherent. Therefore, we are not going to be complicit in something that is bad for the world and contrary to our values and interests, simply out of fear of reprisals from anyone.

Because we have absolute confidence in the economic, institutional, and I would also say, moral strength of our country. And because in moments like this we feel prouder than ever to be Spanish.

We are aware of the difficulties, but we also know that the future is not written, that the spiral of violence that many already take for granted is absolutely avoidable, and that humanity can still leave behind both the fundamentalism of the ayatollahs and the misery of war.

Some will say that we are alone in this hope, but that is not true either. The Government of Spain stands with those it must stand with. It stands with the values our fathers and grandfathers enshrined in our Constitution. Spain stands with the founding principles of the European Union. It stands with the United Nations Charter. It stands with international law and therefore with peace and peaceful coexistence between countries and their people.

We also stand with many other governments that think as we do, and with millions of citizens in Europe, North America, and the Middle East who are calling for a future that brings not more war and uncertainty, but more peace and prosperity.

Because the former only benefits a few.

And the latter benefits us all.

Thank you very much.