“It’s time to move from words to deeds”, Pedro Sánchez warned yesterday from Doha (Qatar), on the last leg of the tour of the Near East that this week also took him to Amman (Jordan) and Jidda (Saudi Arabia), in the face of the war between Israel and Hamas.
With the highest authorities of these three countries, which the Spanish president stressed play a “key role” in order to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, Sánchez shared the imperative need to “implement the two-state solution”. Israel and Palestine, with recognition by the entire international community, as the only solution to the entangled conflict in the region.
For this reason, Sánchez defended in front of his hosts on this tour the holding of an international peace conference, “the sooner the better”; the unification of Gaza and the West Bank under a “revitalized” Palestinian National Authority, and “actively advancing the mutual recognition of Israel and Palestine.”
The recognition of the Palestinian State, he assured, is fundamental, and he reiterated his commitment that Spain will take this step, too, “as soon as possible”. According to his forecast, before summer.
The Head of the Executive announced that, to begin with, Spain will support the entry of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations. And he also advocated that Arab countries recognize Israel. “Mutual recognition is the key to achieving a lasting solution to this conflict, which has already lasted too many years,” he alleged.
Sánchez denounced as “absolutely unacceptable” the attack by the Israeli army that on Monday caused the death of seven workers from the oenagé of the Spanish chef José Andrés in the Gaza Strip. In a press conference in Doha alongside the Prime Minister of Qatar, Muhammad bin Abderrahman al-Thani, the Spanish president considered the explanations given on this issue by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, “insufficient”. Sánchez, in fact, referred to Netanyahu’s “statements or alleged clarifications” offered so far.
“We are waiting for a much more detailed clarification of the causes and why of this bombing”, warned Sánchez. And he criticized that, from what is known so far about this attack, “the Israeli Government was aware of the action and the itinerary of this NGO on the ground in Gaza”.
The head of the Executive will raise the tone against the Prime Minister of the Hebrew State, with whom he has already had several diplomatic clashes since the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza broke out. And he even opened the door to making decisions, without ruling out diplomatic actions. “We will see what actions we take with regard to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Government”, he warned.
After sharing with his Qatari counterpart the iftar, the traditional breaking of the fast during Ramadan, Sánchez culminated last night this second tour of the Proxim in this legislature, once again in full escalation of tension in the conflict facing Israel and Hamas, with a meeting with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamadal-Thani.
