Spain Halts $7.5m Ammunition Deal With Israeli Company IMI Systems

Spain’s government halted a controversial $7.5m deal to buy ammunition from Israel on Thursday, April 24, 2025, after criticism from far-left allies in the governing minority coalition, according to Al Jazeera. The report says Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez intervened to cancel the deal after Sumar, a group of left-wing parties, threatened to pull out of the coalition.

A government source, who did not want to be named in line with Spanish government practice, told Al Jazeera: “After exhausting all routes for negotiation, the prime minister, deputy prime minister and ministries involved have decided to rescind this contract with the Israeli company IMI Systems.”

Al Jazeera reports that Spain had criticised Israel’s war on Gaza and pledged in October 2023 to stop selling weapons to Israel. In February 2024, it said it would also not buy weapons from Israel. In the same month, the Spanish Ministry of Interior signed a deal with IMI Solutions to purchase 15 million rounds of ammunition, destined for the Civil Guard, Spain’s semi-military police force. The report uses both “IMI Systems” and “IMI Solutions” for the company.

After protests from five ministers from Sumar, the government began a study in October 2024 into whether ending the contract was feasible. A spokesperson for the Spanish Interior Ministry told Al Jazeera that, after the study, the ministry followed the recommendation of the state attorney, who advised against ending the contract at that stage, so the contract was honoured. The spokesperson said ending it “would have involved paying … [IMI Solutions] without receiving the material.” On Wednesday, April 23, the ministry said it would go ahead with the deal, six months after seeking to cancel it, in order to avoid paying compensation to the Israeli company. Honest dealing with a supplier and with the public is what the record here turns on (Proverbs 11:1).

Yolanda Díaz, Spain’s deputy prime minister and leader of Sumar, told reporters in Barcelona: “This deal must be rectified. I insist, it is a flagrant violation of the agreements when we are witnessing the live genocide of the Palestinian people.” Igor Otxoa, of the Guernica Palestine organisation, a civic organisation, told Al Jazeera that buying the ammunition “would have shown that Spain is not supporting Palestine.” Al Jazeera also reports a poll for the online newspaper 20minutos.es, in which 48.46 percent of 7,871 respondents opposed the deal, 46.94 percent backed it, and 4.58 percent did not know.

Analysts quoted by Al Jazeera said the dispute could further strain already tense relations between the Socialists and Sumar. The report links this to Sanchez’s announcement on Tuesday that the government would raise defence spending to 2 percent of GDP to meet NATO targets, a move that angered Sumar. Al Jazeera notes that under pressure from US President Donald Trump, Spain, which has the lowest NATO budget among its 32 members, rolled out a 10.5-billion-euro ($12bn) plan to meet the 2-percent goal this year. Veronica Martinez Barbero, Sumar’s parliamentary spokesperson, told Al Jazeera that Spain should not go ahead with the contract, saying “there is a question of not completing promises.”

Not everyone supported the cancellation. Astrid Barrio Lopez, a political analyst at the University of Valencia, told Al Jazeera the decision “shows that there is little judicial security for companies dealing with the Spanish government and little leadership within the government.”

Late on Thursday, Israel criticised Spain’s decision and accused it of “sacrificing security considerations for political purposes.” In a statement to the AFP news agency, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said: “Israel strongly condemns the decision by the Spanish government to unilaterally breach a contract signed with the defense company IMI Systems, and its announcement that it will refrain from future defense deals with Israeli companies.” The ministry added that Spain “continues to stand on the wrong side of history – against the Jewish state that is defending itself from terrorist attacks.”

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