Israel has revived the open diplomatic crisis with Spain after the Central Government’s actions in the Middle East conflict and, through the mouth of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, charged yesterday against the initiative to recognize the Palestinian State as ” only way to achieve peace and stability”.
In a press release also addressed to Ireland, Malta and Slovenia, the spokesman of the Hebrew Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, described the joint initiative announced on Friday by the President of the Central Government, Pedro Sánchez, as “a reward” to Hamas .
And without stopping at the fact that the proposal verbalized by Sánchez not only does not set any date, but is limited to “when the circumstances are right and it is a positive contribution”, Haiat angrily criticized any attempt at recognition: ” The only way to fight Palestinian terrorism is to unequivocally condemn Hamas for the war, crimes against humanity and sexual crimes it committed in the October 7 attack and make an explicit call for the release of all hostages” , he assured through the X network.
The Israeli statement, which was issued six days before Sánchez began an international tour in which he will stop in Jordan and Qatar, did not take long to be answered by Moncloa, asserting that Spain is a “sovereign country” and makes all the decisions in accordance with international law.
Diplomatic sources from the Central Government recalled its “firm and repeated condemnation” of the terrorist attacks and affirmed that, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself, José Manuel Albares, stated during his recent tour of Jordan and Egypt, the intention of recognizing Palestine in this legislature is done with the good of Israel in mind. “Spain acts exclusively to promote peace, stability and security”, they insisted from Moncloa.
The conflict in the Middle East is one of the most complex and divisive of the European Union, which, as an organization, cannot proceed to recognize any country, since it is a national competence of each of the member states.
There are currently nine EU states that already recognize the Palestinian State: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary, Malta, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and Sweden. While thirteen more have a diplomatic office in East Jerusalem or Ramallah, among them.
