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Report: U.S. seeks permanent deal to base troops in Spain

Already there is United states base in ROTA

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Rota is a naval station. Morón already houses USAF.


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Spain says to negotiate increase of U.S. troops at air base| Reuters

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy (R) looks on as Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria reads him a phone message during a government control session at Spain's Parliament in Madrid January 21, 2015.
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(Reuters) - Spain will start talks with the United States about further increasing the number of U.S. troops at an air base in the south of the country, Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said on Friday.

She did not say why Washington sought the changes at the Moron base near Seville. A Defense Ministry spokeswoman had no immediate comment. But the national daily El Pais said it was to improve vigilance of Islamist militant activity in neighboring North Africa.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Madrid were unavailable for comment.

In March 2014, Spain agreed to an increase in U.S. troops to 850 from 500 at Moron to help support coalition operations against Islamist insurgents in north and west Africa. That agreement expires in April.

U.S. authorities have also used Moron as well as Spain's Rota naval base near Cadiz as part of an operation to combat the current Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Moron Air Base has been used jointly by Spanish and U.S. air forces since 1953. It served as a springboard for U.S.-led coalition forces in the 1991 Gulf War.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett; Editing by Paul Day/Mark Heinrich)
 
Spain to negotiate turning Morón into US base for anti-jihadist operations | In English | EL PAÍS

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The Spanish foreign and defense ministries will negotiate with US authorities over converting the Morón de la Frontera air base into a permanent center of operations against jihadism.

The Cabinet greenlighted the negotiation on Friday because bilateral security relations with the US were “one of the most important” issues for Spain, said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría at the press conference following the meeting.

“Together with our membership of NATO and the EU, [these relations] are part of the three basic pillars of our strategic international relations for national defense,” she added.

If a deal is reached, the 850 Marines based in Morón could swell to several thousand in crisis situations

Spain is now ready to discuss a petition first formulated in December by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who asked Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenés for permission to upgrade the US military center to a permanent headquarters for the Pentagon’s Africa Command task force.

If a deal is reached, the elite force of 850 Marines based in Morón could swell to several thousand in crisis situations, and become a permanent presence in southern Andalusia. The force’s main goal is slowing down the advance of jihadism in the Maghreb and Sahel regions of Africa.

The final agreement will be reflected in an Amendment Protocol to the 1988 bilateral defense agreement between Spain and the US. A first amendment was approved in 2002 to allow US army and air force intelligence services to act on Spanish soil, and in 2012 a second amendment permitted the deployment of four Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at the other US base in Rota (Cádiz).

The new reform will turn Morón into a permanent base for the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force for Crisis Response, created after the September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The rapid response unit arrived in Spain in 2013 on a one-year authorization, and in 2014 it was extended for an additional year, raising the number of Marines there from 500 to 850.

But this new deal cannot simply be extended by the government. Because it requires the reform of an international treaty, it also needs to be ratified by the Spanish parliament.
 
MEDITERRANEAN SEA (April 15, 2015) Sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) return to the ship in a rigid-hull inflatable boat from USS Laboon (DDG 58), in background. Ross is forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, and is conducting naval operations in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robert S. Price/Released)
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