Luis Ayllón
The government will appoint Gabriel Ferrán as its new ambassador to Cyprus. Ferrán is the diplomat who was in charge of the Spanish embassy in Afghanistan when the Taliban took Kabul in mid-August last year, The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources.
Ferrán, who had just been dismissed as ambassador in Kabul, coordinated from the diplomatic representation the operation to evacuate the Spaniards and Afghan collaborators who were in Afghanistan when the Taliban returned, and in which the Armed Forces and the Security Forces took part.
On 8 July, as The Objective reported, Gabriel Ferrán sent an email to his superiors in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, raising the alarm about the announcement of the publication of the book “55 days in Kabul”, written by his “number two” in the Embassy in Afghanistan, Paula Sánchez.
In that email, the ambassador in Kabul attacked his right-hand woman in those days, considering that part of the book “poses a risk for the Spanish Administration” by describing “in detail” the functioning of the Spanish embassy, “internal debates and conversations with the Ministry”, the content of coordination meetings with other allies, as well as “operational details about the military base and the NATO mission in Kabul” that led to the Western withdrawal led by the US.
Following the controversy, Paula Sánchez decided at the end of August not to publish the book, among other reasons because of the problems it could cause her, given that she has been posted to Spain’s Permanent Representation to NATO since 1 September.
Ferrán’s appointment will be one of several new ambassadorial appointments in the coming weeks. Among them will be the appointment of the Director General of Foreign and Security Policy, Federico Torres, as the new permanent representative to NATO, as reported by The Diplomat, replacing Miguel Fernández-Palacios.
In turn, Fernández-Palacios will head the Embassy in Italy, which is now occupied by former foreign minister Alfonso Dastis, pending the Hungarian authorities’ approval of his appointment as ambassador to Budapest. Dastis aspired to the embassy in Lisbon, but in the end it seems that the government has decided to keep the current ambassador, Marta Betanzos, in that post for a while longer.
Also awaiting appointment by the Council of Ministers is Abel Antón, director of the Diplomatic School, who will go as ambassador to Belgium.
As The Diplomat has learned from reliable sources, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has already decided to appoint Javier Puig, the current deputy director general for the Maghreb, a post he has held since 2017 and a position he also held between 2012 and 2014, as the new ambassador to Tunisia. He has also been ‘number two’ in the Embassies in Guatemala and Vietnam.
Puig will replace Guillermo Ardizone in Tunisia, who has been at the head of the Embassy for the last four years and who may be the new Permanent Representative of Spain to the Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, a post currently held by Manuel Montobbio.
