On 4 March, just days after the US and Israel attacked Iran, Spain's prime minister addressed the nation.
“The position of the government of Spain can be summed up in four words,” Pedro Sanchez said. “No to the war.”
While other European leaders were working out how to respond to strikes widely questioned under international law, Sanchez's concise response stood out for its clarity.
If his choice of words appeared to echo the Spanish left's opposition to the war in Iraq, his next sentence made clear that the memory of that conflict was on his mind.
“The world, Europe, and Spain have been here before,” he said. “Twenty-three years ago, another US administration dragged us into a war in the Middle East.”
