Spain has frozen purchase of arms from Israel: Defense Ministry

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spain has frozen the purchase of arms from Israel, the country’s Defense Ministry told leading daily El Pais on Wednesday.

The ministry, led by Margarita Robles, said that all of Spain’s contracts to buy weapons from Israel have been suspended since Oct. 7, 2023, with the exception of maintenance work.

Specifically, Spain has temporarily exported aircraft parts related to defense to Israel for repair and later reimported them.

According to Defense Ministry figures from last year, 1.7% of Spain’s defense imports came from Israel.

Prior to Wednesday, Spain’s foreign minister had only said that Spain had stopped selling weapons to Israel since the violence broke out last autumn.

The Defense Ministry was responding to a formal letter submitted on Tuesday by ministers of Spain’s far-left coalition party Sumar, which called on its partners in government for a “total arms embargo with Israel.”

In the letter, Sumar also accused the government of leaving some contracts with Israeli suppliers open.

The left-wing ministers said they hope to see “the suspension of any ongoing contract or agreement with Israeli defense and/or security companies that are linked both to the escalation of the conflict in Gaza and Lebanon and to the operations in all the settlements illegally occupied by Israel in Palestine.”

On Tuesday, more than 300 important cultural figures in Spain, including the Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar, also signed a petition calling on the government to impose an “integral arms embargo on Israel.”

"The provision of weapons and ammunition from Spain, the transit of weapons and military fuel through our territory, and the purchase of military material contribute to perpetuating the occupation, financing a genocide on the Palestinian people, and increasing the loss of life and suffering of civilians," the petition reads.

Despite Spain’s commitment to no longer sell weapons to Israel, some operations authorized before Oct. 7 did go through without being canceled, according to El Pais.