Portuguese FM applauds united thinking over Middle East conflict

There was an “enormous convergence” and a “sense of urgency” among the 43 European and Arab states that discussed the “two-state solution” at Monday’s meeting in Barcelona, said Portuguese Foreign Minister João Gomes Cravinho.

Leaders from 43 countries and the EU met in Barcelona on Monday for the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), where the situation in the Middle East was the main topic of discussion.

“What after many, many years we are seeing for the first time is this combination of understanding of what needs to be done, combined with a sense of urgency,” Gomes Cravinho told Lusa at the end of the UfM on Monday.

“The only real possibility of a solution for long-term peace and stability” is for Israel and Palestine to govern side by side in peace – an idea long known as the “two-state solution”.

Gomes Cravinho noted the “enormous convergence” around a two-state solution, adding that there is a new “sense of urgency”.

It is not acceptable or possible to return to the situation before the 7 October attack on Israel by the radical Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza, he said, adding: “We can’t go back to 6 October, to what was a rotten peace, an unhealthy situation before.

According to Gomes Cravinho, the UfM meeting also recognised the “absolute necessity” of extending the ceasefire in the Gaza war, in which 14,000 people have already died in the Palestinian territory, victims of the military operation launched by Israel in response to the Hamas attack.

Only a permanent ceasefire will allow the “diplomatic and political work” that is ” urgent for the solution of the two states”, but also the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, said Gomes Cravinho, commenting on a war that has claimed some 14,000 Palestinian lives after Israel launched a widespread bombardment of Gaza in response to Hamas’s killing of 1,400 Israelis on 7 October.

Portugal’s foreign minister also said extending the current truce was necessary and possible.

“Everyone would feel very, very disappointed with the expectations of peace that exist. If bombing were to resume now, I think it would be inexcusable, and therefore, it is essential that this ceasefire be extended now,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority was represented in Barcelona today, but Israel, one of the founding countries of the UfM, chose not to attend the meeting.

“Naturally, Israel must be part of this solution, and so we are very sorry that Israel was not there,” said the Foreign Minister, who stressed that the UfM was not a “decision-making body”.

Tel Aviv’s absence did not prevent “good progress being made, particularly in identifying the common lines of the international community as a whole” on the situation in the Middle East.

For Gomes Cravinho, “Israel will surely recognise that its security and long-term interests lie in contributing to a two-state solution”.

Portugal also shares the “deep concern” expressed at the meeting about the situation “in the West Bank, with the extension of illegal settlements” in this Palestinian territory, the minister added.

Regarding Spain’s proposal for an international peace conference for the Middle East, Gomes Cravinho said that such an initiative must have “prior support” and a “dialogue on many aspects that need to be considered in the framework of the development of the two-state solution”.

The peace conference must be “the culmination of this process”, and if it were to take place “without preparation, of course, it would not produce interesting results”, so it would not be feasible “from today to tomorrow”, he added.

(Margarida Pinto | Lusa.pt)