Spanish culture minister says appealing to Trump ‘completely useless’ for EU

Spain's Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun pointed Thursday to a "growing sense" within the European Union that it is "completely useless" to continue appealing to US President Donald Trump amid US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

"I think that there is a growing sense at the EU level that it's completely useless to continue appealing to Donald Trump's vanity or personal interests. I mean, this is over," Urtasun told Channel 4.

He stressed that they cannot agree to "play down" their own values and interests "to please Donald Trump."

"I think there's a moment where democratic countries who believe in international law and multilateralism have to stand up. There's no other choice," Urtasun underscored when asked why Madrid has been opposing Washington for attacking Iran.

He noted that if repeated violations and the dismissal of international law are simply accepted, the question becomes: "What kind of world are we going to build in the 21st century?"

"At a certain moment, we need to say no. We need to say stop," Urtasun added.

He also reaffirmed that Spain is not afraid of Washington's trade threats, underlining that it is "very difficult" to take such threats seriously.

"What we are calling for now as the Spanish government is for de-escalation to try to stop the different military actions that are being developed at the moment and to resume talks and dialogue. This is what we're aiming for," Urtasun said.

His remarks follow Washington's statements threatening a full trade embargo on Spain. Tensions have escalated after the Spanish government refused to allow the US military to use domestic bases for operations against Iran.

Israel and the US have continued a large-scale offensive on Iran since Saturday while Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel as well as Gulf countries that are home to US military assets.