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INPRIMATU
Israel and Spain maintain an agreement to keep arms sales secret
  • The agreement began with the presidency of the Spanish Government, José Luis Zapatero, and took place in 2014 with the presidents of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, and Israel, Shimon Peres. The agreement has been announced by the Public Journal, which publishes the news of it.
Jenofa Berhokoirigoin @Jenofa_B 2024ko irailaren 26a
Israelgo armadako kideak. Argazkia: Menahem Kahana / AFP

The former director of the Spanish secret services, Félix Sanz Roldán, and the director of the Israel Defence Authority, Amir Kain, agreed on the basis of this agreement on 7 February 2011. After three years of agreement, the agreement entered into force on 12 August 2014, when Mariano Rajoy was president of the Spanish Government. Since then, arms sales between Israel and the Spanish State have been kept secret. In particular, silence refers to the "sale of equipment and know-how associated with defence entities", which also serves for contracts between governments and for the sale of arms, both public and private, between the two countries. The agreement has been announced by the Public Journal, which publishes the news of it.

In the event of a dispute over this agreement in order to maintain the secrecy of information relating to the sale of arms, the Convention provides as follows: The director of the Spanish National Intelligence Centre and the Director of Security of the Israeli Defence Ministry will be in charge of "the last word".

With regard to the sale of arms, the 2014 agreement meant a tightening of the existing convention since 1995: if the convention until then was valid for five years, Rajoy and Peres made it "indefinite" and in order to be able to suspend it, the agreement between the parties was considered essential – until then, if a written notice was given, it could be a unilateral decision.

Since 7 October last year, the Spanish State has continued to send its weapons to Israel for investigation. According to data from the Delàs Centre, in November last year the company Nammo Palencia, dedicated to the manufacture of weapons, diverted sales to Israel of EUR 987,000. The independent structure studying the manufacture of weapons is clear that: "It is very difficult to know what Spain has exported, but what we have found and identified is very worrying," he added. As far as the importation of arms from Israel is concerned, they remain the same. In the last year, the Spanish State has acquired EUR 1,027 million of weapons from the Zionist State.