For years, Washington has supplied advanced weapons, intelligence cooperation, military training, and diplomatic backing to Morocco, turning Rabat into one of the pillars of its North Africa strategy.
In the process, American policymakers have largely sidelined the security concerns of Spain—a NATO ally that continues to face Moroccan claims against the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
This is not a new position. It reflects years of accumulating disagreements between Washington and Madrid over international priorities, defense burden-sharing, and strategic reliability.
Morocco has repeatedly used mass migration as a tool of political pressure and hybrid warfare while maintaining its territorial claims against Spain.
Successive U.S. administrations have played a key enabling role: instead of demanding restraint from Rabat, they have expanded military cooperation and arms transfers, emboldening Morocco’s assertiveness toward Spanish sovereignty.
Washington’s Clear Preference: Morocco Over Spain
Washington’s current stance is unambiguous.
The Trump administration and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have prioritized deepening the strategic alliance with Morocco while openly criticizing Spain.
Rubio has repeatedly reaffirmed U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and praised King Mohammed VI, highlighting the nearly 250-year U.S.-Morocco relationship as a model of enduring partnership.
Recent U.S. statements have called for expanded cooperation with Rabat in defense, energy, artificial intelligence, and critical minerals—including those in Western Sahara—cementing Morocco as a key partner for regional stability and the Abraham Accords.
In sharp contrast, Washington’s view of Pedro Sánchez’s Spain has deteriorated significantly.
President Donald Trump has publicly called Spain a “terrible NATO ally,” a “wasted cause,” and referred to Spaniards as “hopeless, bad people.” He has floated cutting off trade and travel over Madrid’s refusal to raise defense spending and its opposition to certain U.S. military operations.
Even some congressional documents and statements have described Ceuta and Melilla in language that implicitly acknowledges Moroccan territorial claims, reinforcing the impression that Spanish sovereignty ranks as a secondary concern in Washington’s strategic priorities.
During the recent mass migrant incursion into Ceuta, Rubio’s State Department examined the possibility of imposing visa restrictions on Spanish citizens—treating Sánchez’s policy of regularizing and potentially granting citizenship pathways to more than half a million illegal immigrants as a potential security risk to the United States.
For Washington, the judgment is straightforward: Morocco is a reliable partner; Sánchez’s Spain is an unreliable ally that benefits from collective security without fully shouldering its responsibilities.
Strategic Logic—and the Costs for Spain
The U.S.-Morocco alliance follows a clear strategic logic for Washington: counterterrorism cooperation, access to the Atlantic and Mediterranean, stability in the Maghreb, and recognition of Moroccan claims over Western Sahara.
Arms sales and military training enhance Rabat’s capabilities against shared threats.
But that policy also produces consequences for Spain.
Morocco has repeatedly shown its willingness to open or close migration flows as a pressure tactic—most dramatically in earlier episodes and again during the recent invasion of Ceuta.
The advanced military technology and surveillance systems supplied to Morocco improve its ability to exert calibrated pressure on Spanish territory without needing open military confrontation.
President Trump’s warnings at the NATO summit in Turkey in July 2026 were particularly blunt.
He pushed for commercial measures against Spain over its refusal to raise defense spending toward the Alliance target and, above all, over Sánchez’s decision to block U.S. use of the joint bases at Rota and Morón during American military operations against Iran.
Sánchez’s government banned U.S. forces from using those bases and later restricted Spanish airspace, while the prime minister publicly championed “No to war,” calling the conflict illegal and unjust.
Washington’s reply was clear: obstructing a major U.S. military operation while free-riding on NATO security would carry consequences.
Sánchez’s Policies Compound Spain’s Vulnerability
Spain’s situation is made worse by decisions taken by its own government.
Under Pedro Sánchez, the executive has pursued policies that place ideology and progressive rhetoric above national cohesion, border security, and Spain’s reliability as an ally.
His government approved a mass regularization plan granting legal residency to around half a million irregular migrants, while applications exceeded one million.
Sánchez defended the measure as “an act of justice” and an economic necessity.
The consequences of years of irregular immigration and successive regularizations are plain: pressure on public services, housing shortages, rising social tensions, and a powerful pull factor that encourages further illegal arrivals.
Mass regularizations send the message that illegal entry can eventually be rewarded, weakening deterrence and the rule of law.
Sánchez’s refusal to allow U.S. use of Spanish bases, his resistance to meaningful increases in defense spending, and his mass regularization policy have helped isolate Spain precisely when its southern border faces growing hybrid threats.
Israel’s Morocco’s Strategy Serves Jerusalem- Not Madrid
Israel has also significantly expanded its military cooperation with Morocco, providing advanced technology, intelligence capabilities, surveillance systems, and military advice that have substantially strengthened the Moroccan Armed Forces.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is acting according to what he judges to be Israel’s national interest—as any sovereign leader would.
This reality was already reflected years ago in statements by Yair Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s son.
In 2019 posts that resurfaced during the recent Ceuta migrant crisis, Yair Netanyahu addressed Arabs and Muslims: “Want to free occupied Arab and Islamic lands? Here’s a good start!”—accompanied by images of Ceuta and Melilla.
In another message he added: “Let’s make a deal: we will stop funding NGOs in your country that call for giving away Ceuta and Melilla, and you will stop funding NGOs in our country that call for giving away Judea and Samaria.”
These comments highlighted what he saw as Spanish double standards on territorial issues, while also revealing how voices close to Israeli leadership view Spain’s North African enclaves through a lens of political reciprocity.
Neither Washington nor Jerusalem will put Spain’s interests ahead of their own.
That is precisely why Madrid cannot continue acting as if others will protect Spanish sovereignty.
A government that lectures its allies, obstructs joint military operations, underinvests in defense, and mass-regularizes illegal immigrants while Ceuta and Melilla face migratory pressure projects—to its critics—an image closer to strategic negligence than responsible leadership, weakening Spain both abroad and at home.
What Spain Must Do
Spain needs to strengthen relations with partners that contribute to stability in the western Mediterranean, diversify its alliances, meet its NATO commitments, restore full defense cooperation with its main allies, and make unmistakably clear that protecting its borders and territorial integrity is a non-negotiable priority.
That includes a firm deterrence policy against the use of migration as a weapon of pressure and the rejection of any approach that treats Ceuta and Melilla as bargaining chips.
Under this government, Spain has weakened its own position through permissive migration policies, the blocking of certain U.S. military operations, and insufficient investment in defense capabilities.
The question is whether Madrid will finally prioritize Spain’s national interests—or continue policies that leave the country increasingly exposed and isolated.
The post Is Washington Abandoning Spain? How U.S. Policy, Israel’s Alliance with Morocco, and Pedro Sánchez’s Immigration Agenda Are Reshaping the Western Mediterranean appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.