Spain denied entry to a cargo ship - Marianne Danica - loaded with explosives and had departed Chennai on April 8 and en route to Israel’s Haifa port. It had requested permission to call at the southeastern port of Cartagena in Spain on May 21, according to media reports.  

The Danish-flagged cargo ship, ‘Marianne Danica,’ departed from Chennai with 27 tonnes of explosives, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.

Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, confirmed that the ship was not allowed entry.

This is the first time Spain has done this because it is the first time the country has detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port, the Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares said on Thursday. 

The ship had requested two permits to transit through Spanish waters and make a stop over in the port of Cartagena. The sender is a Chennai-based logistics company. Its recipient is the Israel Cargo Logistics, the paper said.

The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace. This is what the government of Spain is working for: an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all the hostages, the arrival of humanitarian aid. For a definitive peace through the two-state solution, Spain’s minister Albares said in a video uploaded in the social media.

Meera Srinivasan is The Hindu Correspondent in Colombo

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