Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez further emphasized his refusal to get involved in the Iran conflict and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to halt trade with Spain as a form of punishment.

“The stance of the Spanish government can be summed up in three words,” Sánchez stated in a televised broadcast on Wednesday morning. “No to war.”

Sánchez pointed out that Europe has been in a similar situation before, referring to the negative consequences of the Iraq war. “We must not repeat the mistakes of the past,” he urged.

“Twenty – three years ago, another U.S. administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East,” he said. “In theory, that war was said at the time to be waged to eliminate Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, bring democracy, and ensure global security. However, it unleashed the greatest wave of insecurity that our continent had experienced since the fall of the Berlin Wall.”

In a [missing context] shared after his speech, Sánchez restated his position, saying “no to violations of international law” and “no to the illusion that we can solve the world’s problems with bombs.”

Sánchez had the backing of his colleagues. Budget Minister María Jesús Montero said that Spain “will not be vassals” to another country.

The strong response from the European nation came after Trump made economic threats during a press briefing at the White House on Tuesday while hosting German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Reflecting on the U.S. – Israeli military action against Iran, [missing context], Trump proclaimed the success of the operation and vowed to continue. But he lashed out at some European allies, including Spain, for denying the U.S. access to their military bases.

“Spain has been awful. I told Scott [Bessent, Treasury Secretary] to cut off all business with Spain,” he said, threatening to impose an economic penalty. “We’re going to stop all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”

“Spain said we can’t use their bases. We could use their bases if we wanted to. We could just fly in and use them. Nobody can tell us not to use them, but we don’t have to,” Trump argued. “Spain has absolutely nothing we need, except for great people, but they don’t have great leadership.”

He also blamed Spain for failing to [missing context] to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP as per NATO targets.

Trump’s criticism extended to other countries. He accused the United Kingdom of being “uncooperative.”

“We’re very surprised. This isn’t Winston Churchill we’re dealing with,” he said, referring to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Although Starmer initially refused to let Trump use British bases to launch defensive missiles, he changed his mind on Sunday evening, [missing context] to the U.S. military.