Leverage Morocco as Spain Drift Makes Madrid an Unreliable Partner

Spain’s foreign policy is yielding a new strategic paradox in the western Mediterranean—one Washington should exploit.
Calls to cut trade with Spain over Madrid’s refusal to allow the U.S. use of its bases in the Iran campaign may satisfy political instincts in Washington, but this would only miss the deeper opportunity. The question is not how to economically punish Spain but how to capitalize on the shifting military balance across the Strait of Gibraltar.

In recent years, Spain has weakened defense cooperation with Western partners while leaning toward Chinese procurement. The Kingdom of Morocco, by contrast, has modernized rapidly—often with the very Western systems Spain declined to acquire.

Rather than leverage trade to coerce Spain, Washington should use America’s most effective leverage: security. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez entered office in 2018 promising renewal after the Gürtel scandal implicated many incumbent conservatives in a corruption scandal.

Nonetheless, in 2024, a Madrid court opened an investigation into Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, over alleged influence-peddling tied to business contracts and a university chair created in her favor—despite Gómez not holding an undergraduate degree. There is also scrutiny on Sánchez’s brother, while investigators have implicated socialist-linked figures in several fraud and corruption scandals. The result is a government that promised integrity but now governs under investigation, all while relying on far-left parties that advocate for Spain’s withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Sánchez’s posture is visible in his defense policy. Madrid imposed an embargo on Israeli defense systems, disrupting up to nineteen contracts—including the Spike anti-tank missile and the SILAM rocket launcher program—together worth roughly $1.4 billion. The contradiction is obvious: Despite declaring an arms embargo on Israel in 2025, Spain continues to rely on Israeli-made technology through German subsidiaries that incorporate Israeli systems.

Historically, the relationship between the two countries was once collegial. Indeed, Spain once treated Israel as a counterterrorism partner. Israel’s Mossad helped Madrid fight Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), the Basque terrorist group responsible for roughly 900 deaths across more than 1,600 attacks. Today, hostility has replaced cooperation with Madrid launching endless attacks against the Israeli government. This occurs while Sánchez politically survives thanks to the support of ETA’s political wing; this is why he now advocates removing ETA from the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations and defends Iran.

The White House should simply shift its focus to Morocco. Morocco was the first country to recognize the United States and hosts America’s oldest diplomatic outpost. Rabat’s relationship with Jerusalem predates the Abraham Accords. In the 1960s, Mossad covertly cooperated with Morocco’s monarchy, providing security assistance when other Arab leaders sought to assassinate King Hassan II. Israeli intelligence also facilitated the migration of approximately 100,000 Moroccan Jews to Israel between 1961 and 1964.

After normalization in 2020, that history matured into a military partnership. Rabat has acquired Israeli Heron reconnaissance drones and Barak MX air-defense systems in a deal worth roughly $500 million. Cooperation extends to PULS rocket artillery, EXTRA precision-guided missiles, and anti-drone technologies. Moroccan purchases of Israeli defense systems now approach $1 billion, and there is discussion of a joint Israeli–Moroccan military base in Northern Africa is.

This expanding Israel–Morocco security architecture creates a new reality for Washington across the western Mediterranean which the White House could use as a lever to manage Spain by encouraging recalibration without the optics of direct punishment.

While Spain embargoes Israel, Morocco—Madrid’s main rival in Northern Africa—is fielding the very Israeli and Western technologies Spain rejected and steadily strengthening capabilities along Spain’s southern flank. That shift matters because geography locks Spain into proximity: Ceuta and Melilla sit on the North African coast, and the Canary Islands lie only a few dozen miles from the African mainland. Compounding the risk, these territories fall into a NATO Article 5 gray zone, where collective-defense guarantees are less explicit than they are for mainland Europe.

For that reason, keeping recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara while deepening Israel–Morocco defense cooperation, will allow Washington to reshape Spain’s calculations across the Strait of Gibraltar. Expanded procurement, joint exercises, intelligence sharing, and defense manufacturing would also strengthen Rabat while signaling to Madrid that their strategic drift has consequences—especially around Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands. Sanctions make noise but strategy makes facts.