Foreign policy of the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan government by the international community, both at the institutional and civil society levels, to bridge divides and overcome prejudice, misconceptions, misperceptions, and polarization which potentially threaten world peace, was initiated by Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain, co-sponsored by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. During the visit of Prime Minister Zapatero to Turkey in November 2006, on the occasion of the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, a Strategy Paper aimed at further strengthening Turkish-Spanish bilateral relations was signed by the two Prime Ministers. Turkey's Prime Minister Erdoğan was the first world leader to call for Egyptian leader Hosni
Spain–United States relations Popular, were against the war. After the Spanish general election in 2004, in which the Spanish socialists received more votes than expected as a result, besides other issues, of the government's handling of the 2004 Madrid train bombings, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero succeeded Aznar as Prime Minister. Before being elected, Zapatero had opposed the American policy in regard to Iraq pursued by Aznar. During the electoral campaign Zapatero had promised to withdraw the troops if control in Iraq was not passed to the United Nations after June 30 (the ending date of the initial Spanish military agreement with the multinational