Spain cancels $7.5m Israeli ammunition deal amid coalition pressure
Spain's government on Thursday cancelled a $7.5 million arms deal with Israeli company IMI Systems, following pressure from far-left members within its fragile governing coalition.
The deal, which involved the purchase of 15 million rounds of ammunition for Spain's Civil Guard, drew sharp criticism from Sumar—a bloc of left-wing parties—who warned it violated Spain's pledges on Gaza and threatened to exit the coalition.
According to Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, along with top ministers, had 'exhausted all routes for negotiation' before deciding to rescind the contract.
The deal had sparked internal division after it was signed in February 2024, months after Spain vowed not to sell or purchase arms from Israel due to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Despite an initial feasibility study in October 2024 advising against cancellation—citing potential compensation to the supplier—the Interior Ministry moved ahead with the contract until renewed pressure this week forced a reversal.
Sumar leader and Deputy PM Yolanda Díaz called the deal 'a flagrant violation of the agreements,' adding, 'we are witnessing the live genocide of the Palestinian people.'
Polls show the Spanish public remains divided: 48.5% oppose the ammunition deal, while 47% support it.
Analysts warn the controversy may strain already tense ties within the coalition, particularly as the Sánchez government recently committed to raising defence spending to 2% of GDP to meet NATO targets—another move opposed by Sumar.
While civic groups welcomed the cancellation, critics like political analyst Astrid Barrio López argued it undermines confidence in government contracts. The Israeli embassy in Madrid did not comment on the development.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Netanyahu has become a 'problem', says Danish PM
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Saturday that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has become a "problem", adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war as her country currently holds the EU presidency. "Netanyahu is now a problem in himself," Frederiksen said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, adding that the Israeli government was going "too far." The centre right leader slammed the "absolutely appalling and catastrophic" humanitarian situation in Gaza and new settlement project in the occupied West Bank. "We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members," she said. Frederiksen added that she wanted to consider "political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole," referring to trade or research sanctions. "We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect," added Frederiksen, whose country is not among those who have said they will recognise the Palestinian state. The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza's Hamas rulers resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,430 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to figures from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
39 killed in Gaza as Israel expands offensive
Protestors hold portraits of journalists killed in Gaza during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Amsterdam. Photo: AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 39 people on Saturday, as the Israeli military hinted at an approaching call to push civilians from Gaza City ahead of a new offensive. The latest toll comes more than a week after Israel's security cabinet approved plans to capture the Palestinian territory's largest city, following 22 months of war that have created dire humanitarian conditions. Ahead of the offensive, COGAT — the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories — said that, starting from Sunday, the military would supply more tents and shelter equipment. "As part of the preparations to move the population from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their protection, the supply of tents and shelter equipment to Gaza will resume," it said in a statement. Hamas later slammed the move, saying the announcement was part of a "brutal assault to occupy Gaza City". Earlier, Gaza's civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood were rapidly deteriorating with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment. The spokesman added that about 50,000 people were estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, "the majority of whom are without food or water" and lacking "the basic necessities of life". Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing swaths of the Palestinian territory mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military. In recent days, Gaza City residents have told AFP of more frequent air strikes targeting residential areas, including Zeitun, while earlier this week Hamas denounced "aggressive" Israeli ground incursions. The military insisted in a statement on Saturday that it is "committed to mitigating civilian harm during operational activity, in strict accordance with international law," questioning the reliability of the death tolls provided by the civil defence agency. Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved plans to seize Gaza City and neighbouring camps, some of the most densely populated parts of the territory. On Friday, the Israeli military said its troops were operating in Zeitun. Ghassan Kashko, 40, who shelters with his family at a school building in the neighbourhood, said: "We don't know the taste of sleep." He said air strikes and tank shelling were causing "explosions... that don't stop". Hamas said in a statement that Israeli forces had been carrying out a "sustained offensive in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Gaza City, particularly in Zeitun". The group said the military was targeting the area with warplanes, artillery and drones. The Israeli plan to expand the war has sparked an international outcry as well as domestic opposition. UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in the territory, where Israel has drastically curtailed the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in. According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and in the south. The war was triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the United Nations considers reliable.
Business Recorder
6 hours ago
- Business Recorder
When did Pakistan go nuclear?
Whether Pakistan had become an Atomic power before August 17, 1988 during the lives of Gen. Zia Ul Haq and the then ISI chief Gen. Akhtar Abdur Rahman is a crucial question that has long been debated in the international and national media. CIA's secret documents related to this question, recently declassified, indicate that Pakistan had acquired nuclear capability between 1986 and 1987. In response to a request by the George Washington University's National Security Archive project, on December 18, 2012 CIA released a classified document 'The Jonathan Jay Pollard Espionage Case: A Damage Assessment'. It has been reproduced by the press in the wake of recent Iran-Israel and Pakistan - India wars. The document contains previously classified information about Jonathan Jay Pollard's activities as an Israeli mole in the US intelligence system. One of the major tasks of Jonathan Pollard was to collect information about Pakistan's nuclear programme and plutonium reprocessing facility near Islamabad. There are ten references to Pakistan and its nuclear facilities in the document. It shows that by the 1980s the Americans knew that Pakistan had a fairly advanced nuclear programme but Islamabad's support for the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan prevented them from taking any serious action. In July 1982, the Reagan administration sent former CIA deputy director General Vernon Walters to meet Gen. Zia with US intelligence reports about 'an upswing of clandestine Pakistani efforts' to produce nuclear weapons. Confronted with the evidence, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq restated earlier promises not to develop a nuclear weapon and made pledges to avoid specific nuclear 'firebreaks'. In 1986, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Director Kenneth Adelman also warned the White House that Pakistan was secretly enhancing its nuclear capability but top levels of the US government let relations with a friendly government supersede non-proliferation goals as long as there was no public controversy. One document claims that the Reagan administration did not even want the Pakistanis to share information with them because they feared that the truth would have made it impossible for them to certify to the Congress that Pakistan was not developing nuclear weapons. And on that certification rode the continued flow of aid to assist the Afghanistan resistance, the document adds. In the spring of 1987, senior State Department officials wrote that Pakistani nuclear development activities were proceeding apace and that Gen. Zia was approaching a threshold which he cannot cross without blatantly violating his pledge not to embarrass the President. Jonathan Jay Pollard had been passing this information to Israel, but the question arises why and for whom Israel was accumulating this information about Pakistan's Atomic programme. The US State Department documents, declassified some years ago, throw some light on the issue as they divulge that the US had warned Pakistan in 1984 that India was planning to attack its nuclear installations in a manner similar to the Israeli attack on Iraq's Osirak facility. This information was conveyed to Gen. Zia in a confidential letter written by President Ronald Reagan delivered by Ambassador Hinton, US Ambassador in Islamabad. Reagan's fear was based on a CIA analysis which had noted in July 1984 that some sections of the Indian government viewed a Pakistani nuclear threat imminent. The CIA analysis also noted that an Indian attack on Pakistani nuclear facilities would almost certainly prompt retaliatory strikes against Indian nuclear facilities and probably lead to a full scale war. The US also wanted Pakistan to restrict its uranium enrichment to a maximum of five per cent, a breach of which would trigger sanctions on Pakistan. Gen. Zia is said to have sent for Gen. Akhtar and they decided to beef up security. In reply to Reagan's letter, Gen Zia did not mention his request to limit uranium enrichment. Instead, he flatly denied Pakistan having uranium enrichment capability. 'Pakistan has no intention whatsoever to manufacture or detonate a nuclear device,' the general told the American president. Given Pakistan's awareness and full capability to defend its nuclear facilities, and to retaliate as well, India did not dare attack. A serious crisis between India and Pakistan erupted between November 1986 and March 1987 when India launched the largest-ever military exercise in the subcontinent called Operation Brass Tack. The exercise took place a few hundred miles from India-Pakistan border. With Indian troops amassed along the border, on February 21, 1987 a Pakistan Air Force jet landed at Delhi airport with the visitor none other than Pakistan's President Zia ul Haq. The general had flown to Delhi on the pretext of watching a cricket match between Pakistan and India in Jaipur. In an article published by India Today, Behramnam, special adviser to Rajiv Gandhi, states: 'Before departure for Chennai, General Zia, while saying goodbye to Gandhi said, 'Mr. Rajiv, you want to attack Pakistan, do it. But keep in mind that this world will forget Halaku Khan and Changez Khan and will remember only Zia and Rajiv, because this will not be a conventional war but a nuclear war, as Pakistan is now an atomic power.' The next day, Rajiv met Zia for dinner. They spoke briefly but with definite intention of reducing tensions at the border. They agreed that in the first phase, both countries would withdraw 80,000 troops from each side. To discuss the mechanics of further withdrawals, an Indian team would visit Pakistan and carry talks. If there were still any doubts in India's mind regarding Pakistan's full nuclear capability they were subsequently dismissed by Pakistan's leading scientist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. He was quoted as saying in March 1987, without mincing words that Pakistan had a nuclear bomb. Having conveyed to India of Pakistan's nuclear capability, on March 29, 1987, while acknowledging Gen. Akhtar's role in the protection of Pakistan nuclear programme as well as his role in the covert war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Zia elevated him to the position of Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), the highest-rank in the Pakistan Armed Forces at that time. After the takeover in 1977, Gen. Zia had placed Pakistan's nuclear programme under military control, disbanding the previous civilian directorate, and thereafter since June, 1979, when Gen. Akhtar got appointed as ISI chief, he was a key figure in the protection of Pakistan's nuclear assets. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
