“We have to seriously think about doing it this semester,” Pedro Sánchez acknowledged, regarding his determination for Spain to recognize the Palestinian State, in an informal conversation with the journalists who are accompanying him on the tour of the Middle East that he undertook this Monday. .
Sánchez’s intention, therefore, is for this recognition to occur before this summer, around the month of June in which the new elections to the European Parliament are also scheduled to be held.
Yesterday, Pedro Sánchez embarked on a new express tour that in just three days will take him to visit three key actors in the conflict between Hamas and Israel in order to advance a de-escalation process in which the Spanish president is closely involved.
Sánchez landed tonight in Amman, the capital of Jordan; In a few hours he plans to travel to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia; and she will conclude her trip on Wednesday in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Sánchez plans to meet in Amman with the king of Jordan, Abdullah II; He will also meet in Jeddah with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salmán; and in Doha with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. All of them, key actors in this turbulent region now plagued by the war between the Jewish State and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The head of the Executive told the journalists accompanying him that, in his opinion, the recognition of Palestine is the only way to guarantee peace and security in this turbulent region in the face of the open war between Israel and Hamas. It will be a decision that will be adopted by the Council of Ministers, which will subsequently be reported to the Congress of Deputies.
We must not forget that already in 2014, under the mandate of Mariano Rajoy, the Lower House approved a non-law proposal in which the Government was urged to recognize the Palestinian State. The initiative, according to Sánchez’s intention, is increasingly close to being carried out.
The Chief Executive has linked this decision to the evolution of the international context. And he has warned that in the coming weeks there will be progress in this regard within the United Nations, aimed at recognizing Palestine as a full member of the multilateral organization based in New York.
Time is of the essence, because the President of the Government is very aware that the next European elections can draw a new map of the community club with even greater pre-eminence on the right. Sánchez has defended the “pacifist foreign policy” of his coalition Executive, despite the complexity of the scenario with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and has warned of the possibility that the European Council will remain in the hands of an “ultraconservative” majority. , which prevents facing global challenges from a progressive perspective.
The fundamental focus of this Sánchez tour is thus placed on promoting the solution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, but Sánchez’s tour will also address bilateral issues with these three countries, and will also have an economic nature in the stops in Arabia Saudi and Qatar. These two countries have two of the most important sovereign funds in the world, and with important investment programs underway, in which Sánchez wants to promote the options of Spanish companies. The Saudi telephone company, STC, has bought a significant stake in Telefónica, to which the Government has announced that it will increase its position to 10% of a company that it considers strategic. This issue, however, is not among Sánchez’s priorities in his meetings with the Saudi authorities according to government sources.
