Yesterday Spain brought to the UN its commitment to the recognition of the Palestinian State and asked for the entry of Palestine into this body, and Pedro Sánchez claimed his initiative from Brussels. “Spain is playing a leading role”, emphasized the head of the Executive after his round of contacts in Europe and the Middle East.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, made a strong defense of the need to recognize the Palestinian State, as Spain is ready to do, and for it to become part of the UN to guarantee security to Israel and provide hope to the Palestinians “The Palestinian people have the right to hope and the Israeli people have the right to security”, pointed out Albares in his intervention before the UN Security Council in the debate held to address the situation in the Near East and the application of Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations.
“I am convinced that there is an alternative path to permanent violence and endless pain between peoples called to live together”, he added, while calling for the application of the two-state solution. “To make this solution irreversible is to make peace in the region irreversible”, he said.
For Albares, it is “the best way to protect and to guarantee that the two-state solution will be applied”. “This implies its recognition by all the members, as the vast majority have already done, and as Spain will do”, he concluded. And he warned that you can’t wait any longer.
At the beginning of his speech, the Spanish minister also referred to the “unacceptable attack by Iran on Israel”, which he condemned “categorically”, and warned that “it has brought us one step closer of the abyss”.
“In the coming weeks, all parties must show restraint to stop the violence” and establish the foundations for a future of peace, since “the risk of regional escalation is more real than ever”. And it would have “unpredictable geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences”.
“The escalation must stop. The spiral of violence must be stopped. The Palestinian people must have their place in this assembly and a State of their own, and also the place and existence of Israel must be recognized by all those who have not yet done so,” he concluded.
“We will take this step”, Pedro Sánchez insisted from Brussels, after culminating his round of contacts and trips to promote the recognition of the Palestinian State, in parallel with the open debate at the United Nations.
Spain, he stressed, will recognize Palestine as a State “when the circumstances allow it”. “We are talking with other countries to be able to take this step together”, he pointed out. And he explained that, before approving it in the Council of Ministers, he will inform the parliamentary groups.
