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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez gives a speech in the Spanish capital Madrid on March 04, 2026. [Burak Akbulut – Anadolu Agency]
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Wednesday welcomed the Spanish government’s decision to withdraw its ambassador from Israel and reduce its diplomatic representation.
In a statement received by Quds Press, the movement said the step continues what it described as the honourable positions of the Spanish government and people in rejecting what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said the decision reflects opposition to what it called the genocide faced by the Palestinian people in Gaza, as well as rejection of Israeli violations of international law. It described the move as a noble position that shows a genuine commitment to humanitarian values.
The movement praised what it called Spain’s “courageous” stance and urged other countries to take similar measures, including cutting various forms of relations with Israel.
It also called for international pressure on Tel Aviv to stop what it described as ongoing crimes and attacks against Palestinians, as well as assaults that it said affect other peoples in the region.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of PeaceOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
A veiled Iranian woman holds a portrait of her relative, Mohsen Sheikh Mohammadi, who was killed during the US-Israeli military campaign, during a funeral at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, on March 9, 2026. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“The war is wrong and illegal and needs to stop now—that’s it, that’s the line,” said journalist Adam Johnson.
Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday came out of a classified briefing about the US-Israeli assault on Iran warning that President Donald Trump “can’t defend this war in public” and top officials have even failed to explain behind closed doors “what the endgame is or what their plans are.”
Media critic and political analyst Adam Johnson responded to such comments on social media early Wednesday, reminding leaders on Capitol Hill and beyond that “the war is wrong and illegal and needs to stop now—that’s it, that’s the line.”
Experts around the world have argued that the US assault is unconstitutional, given congressional authority to declare war, and runs afoul of the United Nations Charter, which bars the use of force unless it is a “necessary and proportionate” act of self-defense or is authorized by the UN Security Council. Despite that, nearly all Republicans and a short list of Democrats in Congress have blocked war powers resolutions in both the GOP-controlled Senate and House of Representatives.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) voted for the resolution and was among the senators sounding the alarm after Tuesday’s briefing. He wrote in a five-part thread on X that “the war goals DO NOT involve destroying Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” and Pentagon and White House officials “confirmed ‘regime change’ is also NOT on the list.”
The primary goal of Trump’s war on Iran seems to be “destroying lots of missiles and boats and drone factories,” according to Murphy. “But the question that stumped them: What happens when you stop bombing and they restart production? They hinted at more bombing. Which is, of course, endless war.”
“And on the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN,” he said of the key waterway Iran has shut down, cutting off the flow of fossil fuel exports and other products. “I can’t go into more detail about how Iran gums up the strait, but suffice it say, right now, they don’t know how to get it safely back open. Which is unforgivable, because this part of the disaster was 100% foreseeable.”
Responding to Murphy in a pair of posts, Johnson argued that “we don’t need 9,000 tweet threads consternating over an alleged lack of ‘plan.’ We also don’t need another take criticizing the regime change war for not being sufficiently regime change-y.”
“Criticizing Trump for a lack of a ‘plan’ implies the existence of a plan that could possibly justify this,” he continued. “There isn’t any, so what does a plan, or lack thereof, have to do with anything? The war is fundamentally unjust, illegal, and immoral regardless of nominal ‘aims’ or ‘goals.’”
Since disrupting diplomatic talks on a new nuclear deal by bombing Iran a dozen days ago, Trump and his top officials, including Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have publicly sent mixed signals on aiming to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, regime change, how long they expect the war to last, and how much it will cost US taxpayers.
As The Washington Postreported, the Pentagon told Congress on Monday that it “burned through $5.6 billion worth of munitions during the first two days of its military assault on Iran.”
That disclosure came after a Washington, DC think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, put the estimated cost of the war at $891.4 million per day, but also said the figure may drop if the US moves to “less expensive munitions.”
Casualties have swiftly stacked up, with over 1,300 Iranians slaughtered—including around 175, mostly children, killed in an apparent US bombing of a girls’ school—according to Iran’s government. The Lebanese prime minister’s office said that Israel’s related bombing of Lebanon has killed 570 people and wounded 1,444.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile attacks on Gulf nations and US military bases in the region. The Pentagon confirmed that seven US service members are dead and around 140 have been injured. Additionally, The New York Timesreported Tuesday that “at least 12 civilians have been killed in attacks across the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain.”
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United States President Donald Trump is seen during the his departure the White House en route Hebron, Kentucky on March 11, 2026, in Washington DC, United States. [Celal Güneş – Anadolu Agency]
President Donald Trump threatened to cut off trade with Spain on Wednesday, accusing Madrid of failing to cooperate with NATO after it barred the US from using jointly operated bases on its territory for strikes against Iran, Anadolu reports.
“I think they’re not cooperating at all. Spain. I think they’ve been very bad, very bad, not good at all. We may cut off trade with Spain,” Trump told reporters, adding that Madrid has been “very bad to NATO” and does not want to “pay their fair share.”
Trump questioned Madrid’s policies toward the alliance, saying Spain benefits from NATO protection but has long resisted increasing defense spending.
The remarks come amid tensions between Washington and Madrid about Spain’s opposition to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Spain’s leftist government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, rejected the military campaign as “reckless and illegal” and barred US aircraft from using jointly operated bases in southern Spain in the offensive against Tehran.
Trump threatened to impose a full trade embargo on Spain while criticizing Madrid for not meeting NATO’s new defense spending target of 5%.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Tuesday that relations with Washington remain “operating normally,” and that both countries’ embassies continue to maintain regular diplomatic contacts.
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The Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels would be the most cost-effective option for the UK economy, the CCC said. Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters
Climate change committee finds move to renewable energy would also bring health, economic and security benefits
Achieving the UK’s net zero target by 2050 will cost less than a single oil shock and bring health and economic benefits while insulating the country against future costs, the government’s climate advisers have forecast.
Eliminating the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels by adopting renewable energy and green technologies, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps, would be the best and most cost-effective option for the future economy, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) found.
Reaching net zero would cost about £4bn a year, the CCC found, or close to £100bn by 2050, which was roughly equivalent to the energy-related costs of the fossil fuel shocks that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The findings contradict widespread claims made by rightwing thinktanks and populist politicians including the Reform party that net zero would represent a crippling cost of £9tn to the UK’s economy. As well as exaggerating costs, these estimates failed to take into account the cost of paying for the fossil fuels needed for energy if we do not reach net zero.
Nigel Topping, chair of the CCC, said the real costs were not only manageable but offered protection against future fossil fuel supply crunches and against the impacts of the climate crisis. “In light of current world events, it’s more important than ever for the UK to move away from being reliant on volatile foreign fossil fuels, to clean, domestic, less wasteful energy,” he said.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at a town hall event on February 20, 2026 in Stanford, California. (Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images)
As evidence of US war crimes mounts, critics around the world argue that “Trump and Hegseth should be sent straight to The Hague to face prosecution.”
As President Donald Trump on Tuesday made what one critic called “the most blasé admission of a war crime by a US president in history,” claiming the Navy sunk an Iranian ship and killed over 100 sailors because it was “more fun” than capturing both, Sen. Bernie Sanders tore into him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over their illegal war on Iran.
“The attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel are unraveling international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the legitimacy of the United Nations. This is extremely dangerous for the future of the planet and humanity,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement.
While both the Republican-controlled Senate and House of Representatives have refused to pass a war powers resolution to stop the assault, experts worldwide have argued the assault violates the US Constitution, which gives Congress the authority to declare war, and UN Charter, which prohibits the use of force against another state unless it is a “necessary and proportionate” act of self-defense or is authorized by the Security Council.
“If the United States and Israel have the right to launch a unilateral attack against Iran, what is the moral or legal argument against China invading Taiwan, Russia attacking Poland, or North Korea launching missiles into South Korea? There is none,” warned Sanders, who has supported war powers resolutions on Iran, Venezuela, and the president’s boat bombing campaign. “In Trump’s world, any nation has the ‘right’ to go to war against any other nation for any reason.”
“After the horrors of World War II, the international community came together to establish international law—a system of rules designed to prevent aggressive wars and hold nations accountable for violating basic human rights,” said the senator, whose father lost relatives in the Holocaust. “Trump and Netanyahu are destroying that effort and are pushing the global community back into international anarchy—a world that produced 10 million dead in World War I and 50 million dead in World War II.”
Sanders argued that “we cannot go back to a world where might makes right—where any nation can invade, bomb, or destabilize another country for any reason they choose. That mentality leaves all of us, and future generations, increasingly unsafe.”
In addition to opposing Trump’s violence at home and abroad, the senator has railed against US complicity in Netanyahu’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, where the death toll continues to rise despite an October ceasefire deal. He even forced multiple unsuccessful Senate votes to cut off some US weapons to Israel over the bloodshed in the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu not only bombed and starved the Palestinians of Gaza after the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, he also bombarded Lebanon, claiming to target Hezbollah. While a ceasefire agreement to protect the Lebanese people was reached in November 2024, Israel has returned to attacking the country since launching the assault on Iran last month.
More than 1,300 Iranians are now dead, including multiple political leaders as well as around 175 people, mostly children, killed in what increasingly appears to have been a US strike on a girls’ elementary school in Minab. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that Tuesday would “be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.”
Meanwhile, Jostein Hauge, an assistant professor at the UK’s University of Cambridge, noted on social media Tuesday that “the Minab school massacre in Iran—carried out by the US government—is one of the deadliest school massacres in modern history.”
He put the US president and Pentagon chief in a class with not only Netanyahu but also former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who are all wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court.
“Trump and Hegseth should be sent straight to The Hague to face prosecution for war crimes, alongside Netanyahu, Gallant, Putin, and al-Bashir,” Hauge said.
While the American public is already enduring some economic fallout of Trump’s war on Iran, at least seven US troops have paid with their lives. Eight more “remain listed as severely injured,” according to chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell. “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 140 US service members have been wounded over 10 days of sustained attacks.”
Democratic Sens. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Cory Booker (NJ), Tammy Duckworth (Ill.), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Murphy (Conn.), and Adam Schiff (Calif.)—with whom Sanders caucuses—have launched a renewed effort to force new votes on war powers resolutions if Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) refuses to hold committee hearings on Iran.
“Now is the time for Democrats to use all the leverage we have to try to stop this unnecessary war,” they said Monday in a joint statement to Semafor. The senators added that Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio “must immediately come before Congress for a public hearing and explain why we’re in this war, how it will end, and why they are prioritizing billions of dollars on an open-ended war instead of lowering costs for American families.”
Keir Starmer explains that UK is participating defensively in Trump and Israel’s criminal war for Israel’s genocidal expansion in Iran and states that he supports Zionism “without qualification”. Starmer said it here: https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/keir-starmer-interview-i-will-work-to-eradicate-antisemitism-from-day-one/Donald Trump explains why he established his Bored of PeaceOrcas discuss rotting brain. Front Orca says “Wish someone would lock him up”.
