MADRID, March 2 (Reuters) – Fifteen U.S. aircraft have left the Rota and Moron military bases in southern Spain since the U.S. and Israel launched weekend attacks on Iran, maps by flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed on Monday.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Spain would not allow its military bases, which are jointly operated by the U.S. and Spain but under Spanish sovereignty, to be used for attacks on Iran, which Spain has condemned.
At least seven of the aircraft were shown on FlightRadar24 as having landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Britain had also initially refused to allow the use of its bases for an attack on Iran, but on Sunday Prime Minister Keir Starmer authorised their use for “collective self-defence”.
Spain’s stance and the emphatic condemnation of the U.S-Israeli actions in Iran by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez once again make it an outlier in the region, potentially straining its relationship with Washington further.
“Spanish bases are not being used for this operation, and they will not be used for anything not included in the agreement with the United States or for anything that is not in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations,” Albares said, speaking to Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the aircraft – primarily aerial refuelling tankers including the Boeing KC-135 “Stratotanker” – had been permanently stationed in Spain.
FlightRadar24’s tracking website showed nine tankers departed on Sunday from the Moron airbase in southern Spain and headed towards Germany.
Two flights departed from Rota, a naval base with an airfield, towards southern France, FlightRadar24 showed. A further four flights departed from Rota but their route was not shown.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, David Latona, Elena Rodriguez, Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alex Richardson)
