Trump denounces UK, Spain over Iran stance

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Mar 3) lashed out at Britain and Spain for not fully backing his attack on Iran, as he threatened to end "all trade" with Spain.

"I'm not happy with the UK," Trump said, as he said of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: "This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with."

Britain, a steadfast ally of the United States throughout the two world wars and in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, decided not to join the assault on Iran that Trump launched with Israel on Saturday. 

Starmer said that US fighter jets could use two UK air bases for a "specific and limited defensive purpose" - one in Gloucestershire in western England and the other at the joint UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

Starmer said that the United States was not authorised to use UK bases in Cyprus, one of which was struck by an Iranian-made drone.

"It's taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land. There would have been much more convenient landing there, as opposed to flying many extra hours," Trump said in apparent reference to Diego Garcia.

Trump, after a series of flip-flops, has criticised Starmer for agreeing to return the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia lies and whose people were expelled by Britain, to Mauritius and instead to lease the base.

"I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have," said Trump, who was speaking next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

Trump voiced fury at Spain, where the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has not allowed the United States to attack Iran through bases long used by US forces.

"Spain has been terrible," Trump said, adding that he has asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to "cut off all dealings with Spain".

He also pointed to Sanchez's public refusal to join NATO allies in a pledge to boost defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP, a level pushed by Trump which says the United States bears too much of a burden.

"So we're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain."

It remains unclear what power Trump would have to "end" trade with Spain, after the Supreme Court struck down his use of emergency powers to slap arbitrary tariffs on other countries.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares earlier said that his government would only allow the use of the Naval Base Rota and Moron Air Base for activities consistent with the United Nations Charter.

Musing on the legalities, the 79-year-old property tycoon turned president said, "I could tomorrow stop - or today, even better - stop everything having to do with Spain, all business."

"I have the right to ... do anything I want with it," he said.

The Spanish government quickly responded that it had a "mutually beneficial" trading relationship with the United States and other countries.

"If the US administration wishes to review this relationship, it must do so while respecting the autonomy of private companies, international law and bilateral agreements between the European Union and the US," it said.

"Our country has the necessary resources to contain possible impacts, help sectors that may be affected, and diversify supply chains."

Sanchez has called for dialogue to end the war on Iran, saying that "One can oppose a hateful regime and at the same time oppose an unjustified and dangerous military intervention."

Sanchez is also an outspoken critic of Israel, accusing it of carrying out genocide in its massive military operation in Gaza, an assertion Israel denies.

US forces use the Rota naval base and Moron air base in Spain. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, Spain, then under conservative Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, staunchly backed the United States.