Spain on Thursday refused a request to allow a ship carrying weapons on its way to Israel to dock at the port of Cartagena in the southeast of the country. According to the report on the Spanish EFE network, the ship had left India for Israel.
According to the report, the ship, "Marian Danica," carried a cargo of about 27 tons of explosives from the city of Madras in India. Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manue Albares, confirmed reports that the Marianne Danica was carrying a cargo of arms to Israel and had requested permission to call at Cartagena on May 21.
He said refusing permission to dock in Spanish ports was consistent with Spain's policy to ban the exports of all arms to Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza in October. He announced that the government's policy would be to "reject any ship that carries weapons to Israel and wants to dock in a Spanish port."
He confirmed that the ship was forbidden to stop in a Spanish port, and that this is the first time such a thing has happened. "This is the first time we have done this, because this is the first time we have identified a ship that is carrying a shipment of weapons to Israel and wants to stop in a Spanish port. The policy is not to issue new export licenses for war items destined for Israel," Albares said in Brussels.
This was not the first time that Spain took an anti-Israeli step. Just last week, the Minister of Social Rights in the Spanish government, Pablo Bustinduy, who is a member of the far-left Sumar Party, sent letters to Spanish companies operating in Israel and called on them to take steps to ensure that their activities "do not contribute to murder or human rights violations in Palestine." In a post he wrote on the X social media platform, he added: "No economic actor should contribute to the violation of the human rights of the Palestinian population."
The Spanish minister ordered the companies to re-evaluate their activities and increase the transparency surrounding their businesses in Israel. He added that "the companies must inform the government about the risks of human rights violations in Palestine," whether in the Gaza Strip or in the West Bank.