US military base in Spain seeks ‘hegemonic control’ over Africa: Analyst

An agreement that grants the US military permanent presence at an air base in southwestern Spain was done with the goal of “maintaining hegemonic control” over Africa and countering growing Chinese influence in the continent, says a geopolitical analyst.

“What the United States is doing throughout the continent is essentially creating a US military architecture that it can control the [African] continent with,” said Eric Draitser, the founder of Stopimperialism.com.

“This demonstrates that the US is militarily committed to maintaining hegemonic control over the African continent,” Draitser said during a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday.

Washington and Madrid signed a defense agreement on Wednesday giving US Marines permanent use of Moron air base, near Seville, from which they can be quickly deployed to Africa.

The deal allows for the US to station up to 3,000 US Marines at Moron air base, up from a current 850. The mission of the Marines is to intervene in crises in Africa, the Pentagon said.

US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Spanish Deputy Foreign Minister Ignacio Ybanez signed the deal at the US State Department on Wednesday.

The air base has been used jointly by the Spanish and US air forces since 1953.

The base served as a launch pad for US-led coalition forces in the 1991 Persian Gulf War as well as helping with the evacuation of the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

“Ultimately, from the geopolitical perspective, the United States does this for the purpose of countering Chinese economic penetration throughout the [African] continent,” Draitser said.

“When you’re thinking about US military forces in Spain, you need to understand that broadly speaking as a military gambit against China in Africa,” he added.

AHT/HRJ

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