{"id":4311,"date":"2026-03-03T21:36:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=4311"},"modified":"2026-03-03T21:36:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T21:36:26","slug":"128991385-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=4311","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not happy with UK either&#8217;: Donald Trump slams European nations, singles out Spain over Iran campaign &#8211; The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"MwN2O\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"T22zO\">\n<section class=\"D3Wk1  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  VtlfQ \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"D3Wk1\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"zPaFh\">\n<div class=\"wJnIp\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-128991499,imgsize-792185,width-400,resizemode-4\/donald-trump.jpg\" alt=\"'Not happy with UK either': Donald Trump slams European nations, singles out Spain over Iran campaign\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>US President <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/donald-trump\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Donald Trump<\/a> on Tuesday sharply criticised several European nations over their response to the ongoing US-Israel military campaign against Iran, singling out Spain for refusing to allow American forces to use military bases on its territory.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>Commenting on the role of European allies, Trump said, &#8220;Some of the European nations have been helpful, and some haven&#8217;t&#8211;and I&#8217;m very surprised. Germany&#8217;s been great&#8230; Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told Scott to cut off all dealings with Spain,&#8221; he said, adding, &#8220;By the way, I&#8217;m not happy with the UK either.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>His remarks come after Spain formally declined permission for the United States to use jointly operated military bases at Rota and Mor\u00f3n for operations linked to strikes on Iran.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Spain rejects US use of bases for military action <br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>Spain has refused to allow the United States to use its bases for military action against Iran, as Madrid hardened its criticism of the widening Middle East conflict.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez condemned what he described as \u201cunilateral military action\u201d by Washington and Israel, calling it an \u201cunjustified and dangerous military intervention\u201d that risks creating \u201ca more hostile and uncertain international order\u201d.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"17\"\/>Foreign minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares said Spain would not authorise any activity beyond existing bilateral defence agreements or outside international law. \u201cThe bases are not being used \u2013 nor will they be used \u2013 for anything that is not in the agreement, nor for anything that isn\u2019t covered by the UN charter,\u201d he said in a television interview.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>While Spain has drawn a clear line, the United Kingdom has allowed the US access to bases in the Middle East but has declined to join the offensive directly.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>Germany, by contrast, has taken a more supportive stance. During a meeting at the Oval Office with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said, &#8220;We have a meeting with a man who&#8217;s become a friend of mine. We&#8217;ll obviously be talking a little bit about Iran. We&#8217;re talking about some very big trade deals.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>Merz said, &#8220;We are on the same page in terms of getting this terrible regime in Tehran away.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Trump defends Iran strikes<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>Trump also defended the US decision to strike Iran, rejecting suggestions that Washington was compelled by Israel to act.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"31\"\/>&#8220;No, Based on the way the negotiation was going, I think [Iran] was going to attack first, and I didn&#8217;t want that to happen, so if anything, I might&#8217;ve forced Israel&#8217;s hand,&#8221; he said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"33\"\/>He maintained that intelligence assessments pointed to an imminent threat.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"35\"\/>&#8220;I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked&#8230; A lot of those missiles that are hitting, those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries&#8211;so I think I was right about that,&#8221; he said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"38\"\/>Describing Iran\u2019s leadership in stark terms, Trump added, &#8220;If we didn&#8217;t do what we&#8217;re doing right now, you would&#8217;ve had a nuclear war and they would&#8217;ve taken out many countries because you know what? They&#8217;re sick people. They&#8217;re mentally ill, sick people. They&#8217;re angry. They&#8217;re crazy. They&#8217;re sick.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"40\"\/>He further said, &#8220;These people are crazy, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they would&#8217;ve used it.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"42\"\/>Referring to the operation, he said, &#8220;The attack that we did known as Midnight Hammer, had we not done that, Iran would&#8217;ve had a very powerful nuclear weapon within one month.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"45\"\/>Trump also criticised former President Barack Obama over the 2015 nuclear deal. &#8220;Barack Hussein Obama made maybe the worst deal that I&#8217;ve ever seen because he gave all power in the Middle East to Iran&#8230; If I didn&#8217;t terminate that deal, they would be sitting with a massive nuclear weapon 3 years ago.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"47\"\/>On the negotiations preceding the strikes, he said, &#8220;We were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first&#8230; <!-- -->If we didn&#8217;t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"51\"\/>He claimed US strikes had significantly degraded Iran\u2019s military capabilities. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had a very powerful impact because virtually everything they have has been knocked out now. Their missile count is going way down&#8230; They no longer have air protection. They no longer have any detection facilities at all. They&#8217;re gonna be in for a lot of hurt. <!-- -->These are bad people.&#8221;<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"55\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Conflict widens across region<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"57\"\/>The diplomatic tensions come amid an intensifying conflict in the Middle East. On February 28, the United States and Israel launched coordinated airstrikes across multiple Iranian cities, targeting military command centres, air-defence systems, missile sites and key regime infrastructure.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"59\"\/>The strikes killed Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and four senior military and security officials, with large explosions reported in Tehran and other cities.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"62\"\/>In response, Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at US assets and allies across the region, including Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"64\"\/>Oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and shipping routes near the Strait of Hormuz have come under threat, sending global energy prices higher and disrupting commercial travel.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"66\"\/>Trump has indicated the military campaign could continue for \u201cfour to five weeks\u201d and potentially longer, stating that US forces aim to dismantle Iran\u2019s missile capabilities, cripple its navy and prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"69\"\/>As Washington presses ahead with its strategy, differences with European allies over the scope and legitimacy of the campaign have now surfaced publicly, with Spain emerging as the most outspoken critic and the latest flashpoint in transatlantic tensions.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"71\"\/><\/div>\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/us\/not-happy-with-uk-either-donald-trump-slams-european-nations-singles-out-spain-over-iran-campaign\/articleshow\/128991385.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply criticised several European nations over their response to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[967,11706,11562,11705,11499],"class_list":["post-4311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-donald-trump","tag-iran-military-campaign","tag-iran-nuclear-threat","tag-spain-military-bases","tag-us-israel-strikes-on-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}