The United States threatens to sanction Spain for vetoing ships transporting weapons to Israel from calling at its ports. In a statement released this Friday and advanced by The Confidentialthe Federal Maritime Commission (CFM), an agency of the United States Government, assures that it is investigating whether Spain “is creating unfavorable conditions for maritime transport in the foreign trade of the United States by denying entry to its ports to certain vessels. ,”. The agency recalls that the law empowers it to deny entry into US ports of ships from the sanctioned country and to impose fines of up to $2,304,629 (2.18 billion euros) for each stopover.
The statement cites the cases of Maesk Denver and the Maesk Seletartwo container ships from New York that were scheduled to dock in the port of Algeciras on the 8th and 14th of last November and to which the Spanish Government denied the stopover after having information that they were transporting weapons destined for Israel. Both ships , according to the agency, participate in the Maritime Security Program (MSP) of the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), a fleet of merchant ships that is at the disposal of the Department of Defense of USA.
Furthermore, although it is not part of said program, the statement refers to the precedent of the Marianne Danica, a Danish-flagged ship that set sail from Madras (India) bound for the port of Haifa (Israel), loaded with 28.6 tons of explosives, to which
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, then assured from Brussels that Spain would systematically deny calls to Spanish ports for ships transporting weapons for Israel. “It is the first time we have done it, because it is the first time we have detected a ship that is carrying a shipment of weapons to Israel and that wants to stop at a Spanish port,” he alleged. Albares added that this decision was consistent with the refusal to grant new Spanish arms export licenses since the current war escalation in the region began on October 7, 2023. “The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs peace,” he concluded.
The note from the US agency shows its concern that “this apparent policy of denying entry to certain vessels creates unfavorable conditions for maritime transport in foreign trade, whether on a particular route or in trade in general.” The investigation, however, is still in a preliminary phase in which it has opened avenues for interested parties, including the Spanish Government and transporters who have been denied entry into Spanish ports, to provide “information, perspectives and solutions.”
