Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares summoned Israel’s ambassador to Madrid on Monday to express Spain’s “categorical rejection” of Israel’s recent accusations against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who last week urged the country to stop attacking Gaza civilians and demanded “assurances” that such criticism would not be repeated in the future.
Speaking to the press at the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) regional forum in Barcelona on Monday, Albares (PSOE/S&D) did not say when exactly the Israeli ambassador would be summoned, although the Spanish press is speculating that it will be this week after Israel accused the Spanish prime minister and Socialist leader of “supporting terrorism”, EFE reported.
Although Albares did not disclose details, he stressed that Spain would send Israel’s ambassador to Madrid, Rodrica Radian-Gordon, a very clear and forceful “double message”.
Madrid would convey to the Israeli ambassador its “categorical rejection of false and unacceptable words” against Sánchez and ask for “clear” explanations and the “assurance that they will not happen again in the future”.
“It is the Israeli ambassador who has to explain those words,” Albares told a press conference shortly after meeting his Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki, at the Union for the Mediterranean forum.
Sánchez and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo visited Palestine and Egypt last weekend, with Sanchez saying, “the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of children, is completely unacceptable” on his visit to the Rafah border crossing.
Even though the EU does not recognise Palestine – 136 countries do, including 11 of the 27 EU member states – Sanchez has left the door open for his country to do so unilaterally.
Madrid backs the Palestinian Authority’s return to Gaza
Albares said Spain is in favour of the “effective return” of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza because Hamas cannot be a “partner for peace” in the Middle East, the minister stressed.
In his speech at the Barcelona forum, Albares called for “offering all support – European, Arab, international – to accompany and make possible the re-establishment of legitimate authority in Gaza”.
“The Palestinian Authority is our only possible partner for peace”, he stressed.
In the minister’s view, “Hamas cannot lead Gaza” because “it does not have an agenda of peaceful coexistence” and “it cannot play a role in the future in the implementation of the two-state solution”, which Spain supports, so the Palestinian Authority must be empowered to take Hamas’ place.
The Spanish minister called for the extension of a “humanitarian ceasefire” and demanded that Israel respect international humanitarian law.
“The death of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians is not acceptable”, he pointed out.
Over 13,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli attacks following the Hamas terrorist attack on 7 October that resulted in 1,200 deaths and the taking of some 240 Israeli hostages, UN figures based on data from the Gaza Health Ministry state.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
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