Far from inviting him to cool his position, Iran’s attack on Israel further encourages Pedro Sánchez to reaffirm “a fiery defense of the need to recognize the Palestinian State.” This Monday, the head of the Executive defended his commitment to the path of “peace, diplomacy and international legality.” Because the alternative, in his opinion, is to head toward “a warlike escalation that takes us to the abyss.”
“The events of this weekend reaffirm what we have been defending for months. Two paths open before us: one leads to an escalation of war that could lead us to the abyss and the other involves demanding a ceasefire from all parties, immediately launching a peace process, which Spain has been advocating. from the beginning of the crisis, and be based on the two-state solution and therefore on the mutual recognition of Palestine and Israel to guarantee peaceful coexistence in this region that is so sensitive and so important for the stability of the world,” said Sánchez. . “That is the path that Spain and its Government demand,” she stressed.
Sánchez appeared this Monday at Moncloa alongside the new Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, after holding their first bilateral meeting. And although the Portuguese president has also opted for a two-state solution, and therefore also for recognition of Palestine, he has not accompanied his Spanish counterpart in the pressure of time to adopt this decision before next summer as Sánchez claims. “We are not going as far as other governments, at the moment, with regard to the recognition of the State of Palestine, because we consider that this consensus has to be reached multilaterally, within the European Union and also the United Nations” Montenegro has alleged.
“We reaffirm our position,” insisted Sánchez, who continues to look for European allies for recognition of the Palestinian State before this summer. “Only by giving a political horizon of the two-state solution and the mutual recognition of Israel and Palestine will we be able to lay the foundations for peaceful coexistence,” he defended. “It has taken a long time for the international community to recognize the Palestinian state. And the international community will not be able to help the Palestinians if it does not recognize their existence,” he argued. “The decision of the Government of Spain is clear, firm and unequivocal. It is the path that can guarantee peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, and put an end to this cycle of violence that recurs from time to time in the Middle East,” he stressed.
Sánchez has indicated that he is still in talks with leaders inside and outside the EU, “so that there are a few of us who take this step together,” in reference to the recognition of the Palestinian State. “In any case, the Government of Spain is going to take that step. And we are going to give it because we believe that it is fair and that it is necessary so that we can lay the foundations that allow us to guarantee peace and coexistence between both peoples,” he stated.
After last week’s European tour, which took Sánchez on an accelerated tour of Warsaw, Oslo and Dublin, Sánchez received this Monday at the Moncloa Palace the new Prime Minister of Portugal, the conservative Luís Montenegro, who has just replace the socialist António Costa in office. And tomorrow he will get back on the plane to travel to Ljubljana, where he will meet with the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob. Finally, the Spanish president plans another meeting on Wednesday in Brussels with the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo, with whom he already shared his first tour of the Middle East in November last year, after the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out in Loop.
Sánchez’s intention is to continue adding allies to his determination so that Spain, along with other European countries, recognizes the Palestinian State before this summer. His intention is to gather a “critical mass” of European countries willing to adopt this initiative, which in turn drags other countries to take the step. The more there are, they argue in Moncloa, the more beneficial it will be to advance a resolution of the historic conflict between Israel and Palestine, on equal terms. And Sánchez wants to be the architect of this entire process.
At the same time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will defend this Thursday at the United Nations Security Council the entry of Palestine as a full member state of the multilateral organization based in New York.
