BARCELONA, Spain – Spain, which is part of the US-led coalition arrayed against the Islamic State (ISIS), has given the green light for arms deliveries valued at nearly 100 million euros to the Iraqi military.
The El Pais daily on Thursday reported that the consignments approved by the government comprise munitions and armored vehicles.
The news follows the recent and stunning fall of the city of Ramadi, where Iraqi forces have been accused of simply driving away and letting Islamic State (ISIS) militants take over the capital of the country’s largest province.
ISIS has reportedly been fighting with advanced weapons captured from Iraqi forces about a year ago, when the military fled before an ISIS advance, and in subsequent battles.
Spain is delivering 95.8 million euros worth of weapons to the Iraqis, El Pais said, but it was unclear whether this will be in the form of aide or a commercial sale.
Since the ISIS advance in Iraq last June, Spain has sent 300 soldiers to train their Iraqi counterparts. This is the first time it is contributing weapons to fight ISIS, which besides Ramadi also captured the Syrian city of Palmyra about a week ago.
The source quoted by the paper said the Spanish government had approved eight licenses to sell arms to Iraq.
Spain has not exported arms to Iraq over the past several years, but in 2014 it sold equipment worth about 100,000 euros to detect explosives at an oilfield.
Most of Spain’s arm exports are to NATO and EU countries.
Last month, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that “jihadi terrorism is a direct threat” to European and other countries.
“Some people don´t understand that jihadi terrorism is a direct threat for the security of our countries and our citizens and constitutes the main threat nowadays,” he said at a regional anti-terrorism meeting.
Since the beginning of this year, Spanish authorities have stepped up crackdowns on ISIS cells and on loyalists, announcing many arrests.
Also last month, 11 people were arrested in Barcelona and surrounding cities on suspicions of planning terrorist attacks in the country. They had been scouting out places for potential terrorist attacks, such as the Catalan Parliament, two police stations, a Jewish bookshop and a hotel.
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