The Government decided to send the Cristóbal Colón frigate, the most modern in the Navy, to Cyprus after the meeting held by the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, with the new United States ambassador, León Benjamín Jr. Spain has been experiencing a train wreck with the North American country since the beginning of this week, when the country’s president, Donald Trump, accused our country of being a “terrible partner” and giving orders to “cut off all trade.”
The reason was Pedro Sánchez’s refusal to participate in Operation Epic Fury, as the North American and Israeli attack against the military and religious leadership of Iran has been named, which began on February 28. But above all to reject that American planes used the bases of Rota and Morón (Cádiz and Seville) for this.
Spain has anchored itself, until this Thursday, in an anti-war position. Two days ago, Sánchez dusted off the slogan “no to war”, baptized 23 years ago by former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The speech was tricky from the beginning, since Spain has 700 soldiers deployed in Lebanon who participate in the UN mission in the area. Israel is harshly attacking the country, with internal incursions through the area where the Spanish military is located, and bombing positions of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia sponsored by Iran.
Our country also played a more than relevant role in the downing of a missile in Türkiye that was allegedly launched from Iran, although the regime denies it. An Army Patriot battery is deployed in the Ottoman country. Although Defense assures that they were not the ones who neutralized it, they do admit that the information that the Spanish gave was fundamental to this.
That is to say, although the Government has reported that it is not participating in the military deployment, the reality is that the Spanish troops were already there long before. The sending of the Christopher Columbus is a turn of greater tension, especially considering that it has left in a bad light the ministers who have been most involved in public discourse in recent days: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and Margarita Robles.
The Government’s new misfortune began on Wednesday. In the afternoon, the Defense Minister received the new North American ambassador. His department released a press release explaining that Spain’s position was aligned with “peace” and “human rights,” but that it would not participate in Trump’s new offensive. Upon leaving, the diplomat informed his people, and later the White House spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, assured that our country “has shown its agreement in recent hours to cooperate with the US military.”
His words caught Albares in a radio interview. When asked about them, he responded: “She will be the spokesperson for the White House, but I am the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Spain and I tell you that our position on the use of the bases, on the war in the Middle East and on the bombings in relation to Iran has not changed at all.” His “resounding” statement became more than old first thing in the morning, with the news of the shipment of the frigate Cristóbal Colón.
The new script set by Moncloa to justify sending troops to Cyprus is that “one thing is attack missions and another is defense.” Last Sunday, an Iranian missile hit a British base on the island. Robles has argued that the Spanish presence is sustained by the defense of a partner of the European Union, but technically the bombed territory belongs to the United Kingdom, which left the community club six years ago.
Government partners have closed ranks in the decision. The second vice president of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has stated that the five Sumar ministers had been informed of the sending of the frigate to Cyprus, which she considers a “strictly defensive action and within the framework of the EU.” The federal coordinator of IU, Antonio Maíllo, has gone further, saying that the Government is on the “right side” of history with its position against military intervention in Iran, but he also defended Spain’s departure from NATO and the dismantling of North American bases.
For her part, the general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, demanded from the Government “coherence and congruence” and in the face of “contradictory information” about an alleged American plane bound for Italy, and then Saudi Arabia, which would have left the Rota base.
The ship that Spain will send to Cyprus, and which is expected to arrive on March 10, is a ship designed especially for air defense, with the capacity to operate in all types of scenarios, both in conventional operations and in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. With 146 meters in length, 18.6 meters in width, 7.2 meters in draft and a maximum speed of 28.5 knots, it is the most modern frigate of the F-100 class that the Navy has and has the highest percentage of participation of the Spanish industry in its construction, which was carried out in the Navantia shipyards in Ferrol (La Coruña). Its current strength is around 200 troops.