The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received yesterday in Madrid his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, before whom he reiterated Spain’s traditional support for “the two-state solution” to put an end to the Middle East conflict and with whom he discussed the strengthening of mutual security and the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“Meeting in Madrid with my Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen,” Albares declared, as usual, through his official Twitter account. “We have addressed our bilateral relations and the situation in the region,” he continued. “I have conveyed to him Spain’s commitment to peace and stability in the region and to the two-state solution,” he added.
Apart from that, as reported by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release, Eli Cohen and Jose Manuel Albares “agreed to form a united front in the fight to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons” and pledged to “strengthen security cooperation between the two countries, including by advancing a 300 million euro defense agreement.” Spanish Foreign Ministry sources told The Diplomat yesterday that the information “is not correct” and even denied it “categorically”.
“I thank Minister Albares for his firm position and support for the struggle to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” he said, quoted on the Israeli Foreign Ministry website. “Europe increasingly understands the danger of Iran’s reign of terror, and I have told him that we must form a broad and determined front against them, including economic and political sanctions along with a credible military threat,” he continued. “We agreed to strengthen security and technological cooperation between the countries and to increase cooperation in international institutions,” added.
Also, “Cohen made it clear to his colleague that Israel is not opposed to humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, but is strongly opposed to the transfer of funds to elements that encourage and incite terrorism.” Last Tuesday, the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (AECID) informed that Spain contributes with one and a half million euros to the payment of social subsidies to vulnerable families in Palestine, within a program of the European Union, which also includes eight million contributed by France and which reaches a total of 26.3 million euros.
The meeting between the two ministers took place a day after Albares received, also at the Ministry’s headquarters, his counterpart from the Palestinian Authority, Riad al Malki, before whom he also reiterated Spain’s support for “the two-state solution to achieve peace in the region”.
Eli Cohen was also received by the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and met with the heads of the Spain-Israel Chamber of Commerce and representatives of the Jewish community in Spain. In the afternoon, he paid a visit to Toledo, before concluding what was the first visit in thirteen years by a head of Jewish diplomacy, and which came just a few months before Spain takes over the six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
In fact, one of the objectives of Al Malki and Cohen in Madrid was to hear from Albares whether Spain has any approach to get the EU-27 more involved in the search for a solution to the conflict. However, the government of Pedro Sanchez does not seem to have the Middle East issue among the priorities of the Presidency, and for some time now has limited itself, time and again, to reiterating its support for the two-state solution as the only possible response to the aspirations of both sides.
