Spain responds to the diplomatic coup launched by Israel against Pedro Sanchez after his tour of the region. The Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Albareshas just summoned the ambassador in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon to explain the “false accusations” of his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen. The Hebrew minister has accused Pedro Sánchez and the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo, of “support terrorism“and has in turn summoned the ambassadors of both countries in Tel Aviv.
Hours before, Pedro Sánchez said in a press conference at the Rafah crossing in Gaza with Egypt that Israel is “clearly” not respecting international law in its “disproportionate” response cagainst Hamas in Gaza.
“The accusations of the Israeli government towards the President of the Government and the Belgian Prime Minister are totally false and unacceptable“, responded the head of Spanish diplomacy “We reject them categorically and we are analyzing the appropriate response that we are going to give. But there will be a response to those false, misplaced and unacceptable accusations. They are especially serious because it concerns the President of the Government who represents the Presidency of the European Union in exercise and the Prime Minister who represents the country. [Bélgica] who will occupy the presidency as of January 1”.
The Belgian Prime Minister has also responded to the Israeli accusation. “I said that humanitarian aid was not provided due to problems on the Israeli side, this is not an opinion. a fact. I condemned the terrorist acts of Hamas and stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, certainly within the limits of international law, and finally said that we must stop killing civilians on both sides,” according to the newspaper Le Soir. “A balanced message. “We will invite the Israeli ambassador in Brussels for coffee and we will repeat our position to her.”
Systematic condemnation of the attacks
The Foreign Minister has insisted on asking that it be remembered that Spain has expressed solidarity towards Israel since the beginning of the crisis. “Since October 7, the President of the Government, myself and the entire Government of Spain We do not hesitate to condemn the Hamas terrorist attack and to make it very clear that it never represents the Palestinian people and is only a terrorist organization,” said Albares in a note sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “And I want to remember the two Spanish victims, Maya and Iván, who will always be in our memory,” he added.
The Spanish Government has repeatedly called for the “unconditional and immediate release of all hostages” held by Hamas. Pedro Sánchez went to visit one of the agricultural cooperatives, Be’eri, to pay tribute to the victims.
Albares, however, has insisted on the same line expressed by the President of the Government. Israel’s right to defense must be carried out”within scrupulous respect for international humanitarian law.”. “Our voice will always be raised to protect so many Palestinian civilians with an unbearable number of victims including children seeking a humanitarian ceasefire.”
The president, concludes the head of the Ministry, has brought to Israel and Palestine the idea of ”building a solid bridge to peace that can guarantee the existence of a State of Palestine and a State of Israel”.
Israel compares Hamas to ISIS
“We are acting in accordance with international law and fighting against a murderous terrorist organization worse than ISIS (Islamic State) that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity,” says the Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen. The head of the Belgian delegation has also been summoned. Sánchez has made his trip with the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander De Croo.
“We condemn the false accusations of the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium, who support terrorism,” reads a statement sent by the Israeli delegation in Spain to this newspaper. “After the break, we will continue with the combat operation until the Hamas Government of the Strip be eliminated and the hostagesreleased”.
The Israeli Embassy in Spain has just condemned, at the same time, the resolution approved today in the plenary session of the Barcelona City Council to suspend relations with the government of Israel. “It is a new episode of the anti-Israeli attitude of the Barcelona City Council. “This unjustifiable statement only benefits Hamas and whitewashes its barbarity.”
Sánchez tour
This Friday, Sánchez concluded a tour of the area in which he met, among other leaders, with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the president, Isaac Herzog before whom he reproached the “unbearable” number of civilian victims and Palestinian children that the Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Palestinian Gaza Strip is causing. More than 14,500 people have died in Gaza, after Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped around 240 on October 7.
The president has thus established himself as an international bulwark of the cause for the defense of the civilians killed in Gaza, which he always combines with condemning the “terrorist attacks” of Hamas and the demand for the release of the hostages held by the Islamist group. Diplomatic sources suggest that this position is planned and is consistent with the president’s political vision, but also with national interests, focused on the southern neighborhood of Arab countries, inclined to the Palestinian cause.
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This is not the first diplomatic clash that this war has caused between Israel and Spain. On October 16, the Israeli Embassy in Spain issued a statement attacking the statements of the then Minister Ione Belarra, in which she asked to bring the International Criminal Court to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes. The Foreign Ministry counterattacked with another note in which it denied the “false accusations” from the Hebrew diplomatic delegation.
The Spanish president has also defended the promotion of the two-state solution, agreed in Oslo in 1993 but which has not given birth to a Palestinian State. Sánchez considers that, once the conflict ends, control of Gaza will be transferred to the Palestinian National Authority, legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Spain has proposed the convening of a peace conference, emulating the spirit of Madrid 1991. 88 countries have already adhered to the proposal.