Spain denies port call to vessel carrying shipment of ‘arms to Israel from India’

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Spain has refused port call to a Danish-flagged merchant vessel carrying “27 tonnes of explosive material from India to Israel” saying the middle east “requires peace and not more weapons,” reports The Print.

“This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno told reporters in Brussels.

He said that the ship in question was Marianne Danica which had requested permission to call at Cartagena on 21 May.

“We have detected this ship, we have refused to allow it to dock, and I can tell you that this will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying Israeli arms and arms cargo that wants to dock in Spanish ports,” he was quoted as saying in media reports emerging from Spain.

El Pais newspaper said the Danish-flagged ship is carrying 27 tonnes of explosive material from Chennai in India to the port of Haifa in Israel, The Guardian reported.