The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has shown himself willing to "study" the United States proposal that Spain can participate with liaison officers in the mission led by Washington to protect navigation in the Red Sea against attacks by the Houthi rebels, after having refused to be part of it from the beginning.
"We are now going to study the proposal that they are making to us" from Washington, the president commented in an interview on RNE, when asked about the request that the Joe Biden Administration would have conveyed to the Spanish Government to at least be present with officials. liaison although it does not send ships or troops, according to La Vanguardia.
With this, Sánchez has opened the door for Spain to finally have liaison officers in Operation Guardian of Prosperity, while making it clear that he is not opposed to this mission. "We are not going to oppose it but we will see what kind of participation we have," he stated.
However, the president has once again insisted on the argument put forward since the formation of said operation became known, in which the United States initially included Spain and the Government ruled it out, that there are currently more than 3,000 Spanish soldiers deployed in different EU, NATO and UN missions. "We are present, we are a reliable partner, we are a loyal partner," he stressed.
Likewise, he has stressed that the objective of this mission in the Red Sea "has nothing to do" with that of the EU operation Atalanta commanded by Spain and which seeks to combat piracy in waters near Somalia, thus justifying the veto of the Government that said European mission could be expanded to operate in the Red Sea.
Sánchez's words come after the United States and the United Kingdom, with the support of several other countries, carried out bombings last Friday against Houthi positions in Yemen, which continued over the weekend, and that Washington has made it clear that they are out of 'Guardian of Prosperity'.
In this regard, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, did not want to assess the bombings against the Houthis on Friday and assured that the Government had not received any type of pressure from the United States to join its mission in the Red Sea. . Spain "makes its own decisions" and no country "has to tell us where to intervene," she said.
Likewise, the Defense Minister also reaffirmed that Spain will not participate in the new EU mission in the making, which she announced will surely have a purely defensive nature, while making it clear that she will not oppose it either.
Government sources have subsequently insisted that Spain is not opposed to the EU giving the green light to a "specific mission" with a specific mandate and that it has the appropriate capabilities to confront the threat posed by the Houthis in the waters of the sea. Red.
As regards Operation Atalanta, there have been many sources, it is not prepared in terms of means, capabilities or mandate to address this threat.
The situation in the Red Sea will be one of the topics that will surely arise during the closed-door meeting to which Sánchez has been invited to participate within the framework of the Davos Forum this Wednesday, in which the issue of stability and security in the Middle East.
Twenty political leaders and experts have been invited to this meeting, which will be chaired by the president of the World Economic Forum, Borge Brende. Among them, according to Moncloa, are the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, with whom Sánchez precisely carried out his visit to Israel, Palestine and Egypt at the end of November, as well as the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia or Oman, among others.
The Government has explained that the president wanted to be present at this meeting given the importance of the issue and because he is interested in being able to share his vision regarding the conflict, listen to the points of view of other leaders and analyze future perspectives.
