Jesús González Mateos/Aquí Europa
Antonio López-Istúriz, MEP of the Popular group, is the European Parliament’s delegate for relations with Israel, which puts him in a privileged position to analyze the crisis in the region. We spoke with him about the consequences of the attack carried out last weekend by Hamas in Israeli territory and the response that, in his opinion, the European institutions should give.
The first thing I would like to ask him is an assessment of what this attack of never, this terrorist attack of never on Israel has been and what is his assessment of the situation created as a result of this attack.
Very well. Just so that the readers are clear, obviously this is first of all an attack in which the civilian population has suffered. We have seen scenes of torture, rape, massacres, of young people at peace parties. And all this was provoked by a terrorist organization that is still not recognized by some European governments as such a terrorist organization. We Spaniards have been asking for years for ETA to be recognized as a terrorist organization and Herri Batasuna, as its political arm, and we understand these European games. Hamas is a terrorist organization that hides behind the Palestinian population, it is not Palestine that has invaded Israel, it is the terrorist group Hamas financed and encouraged and controlled by Iran. This is the crux of the matter, who was behind this whole movement. Iran, why? Because there was a spectacular moment, a moment for stability in the area, agreements had been signed, Israel had normalized relations with Arab countries. It seemed that now Saudi Arabia was going to join the club, in short, an extraordinary process that was going to give enormous stability to a region that for 80 years had been punished with all this conflict. But Iran could not tolerate stability and has acted through its armed wing, as it has always done, it did it in Lebanon with Hezbollah, it does it with Hamas constantly, and it has the Palestinian population in Gaza and the Lebanese population in Lebanon as hostages and human shields. In short, I was surprised by the reactions of some European politicians, especially the extreme left, who far from condemning, even seem to be cheering this kind of issues, which humanly speaking, when you have seen the images that have been seen, what is being seen on the Internet, how can you be so petty, so mean? To make that kind of statements when that is happening, shows the moral character of many of them. Having said that, but this is secondary, now the important thing is, in some way, to contribute so that there can be a de-escalation. Israel is reacting, it is normal and logical, it has been invaded, it has been attacked and let us hope that soon we can, in some way, finally sit down together to see how we can solve this issue that has been going on for too long.
What should be the reaction of the European institutions? What role do we Europeans have to play in this crisis?
It is difficult to say, because we have played a somewhat contradictory role up to now, as we saw yesterday with the discussions on whether or not to freeze funds for Palestine. In short, a bit of division. And that is bad. In foreign policy, we European countries cannot have this kind of division. I believe that the role of the European Union is to support the only democratic country in the area, which is Israel, but also, of course, to support the Palestinian people, who are not entangled with terrorist organizations. Logically, the issue is that the doubt that has been established, which has been denounced for many years, is that part of this European funding is not known in whose hands it ends up, there are no mechanisms to control it and it could end up in the hands of these terrorist organizations and, above all, through their NGOs, very diffuse political terminals, which channel this money, in the end, not to the Palestinian people, who really need it, but to these terrorist organizations. I say that they use them as human shields, that they take advantage of them, that they take the money, humanitarian, from the European Union and many countries send it. This is the tragedy, which is already well known to all. We will put an end to it now.
First there was talk of freezing development aid to Palestine and then of a review, and when some Member States, some governments did not agree, there was talk of a review. What should be the final decision?
The European Commission, let them make all the revisions they want, what they have to guarantee me is that not a single euro of the European taxpayer has gone into the hands of terrorist organizations. When they can guarantee it to me 100% and signed, maybe, perhaps, I will be able to rest assured.
What do you think of the position of the Spanish government, which was one of the governments that opposed the freeze directly, requesting consensus among the member states?
As always, a mellifluous position, on the part of whoever is currently presiding over the European Union, no really key reaction, beyond some official condemnation. But, unlike European governments, which have made a joint resolution to the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, the current president of the European Union, has done nothing. Once again out of place, but this has been going on for a long time. It is not only on this issue. Spain unfortunately, and I suffer a lot for this and all of us who are involved in international issues, has ceased to be a vital player. Now this meeting of the European Council was held in Granada, with great celebrations, photos, dinners. Listen, it is normal. It is a normal meeting for those who hold the presidency of the European Union. It is nothing extraordinary. The Government always sells all this type of actions as if it were a question of Pedro Sánchez’s victory. No, listen, it is the image of Spain. It is the Spanish presidency. It is not the presidency of Pedro Sánchez or of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, this is the problem. Spain, which in the past with Felipe Gonzalez, for example, at the Madrid summit, played a fundamental role in a peace process between Palestinians and Israelis, now it is impossible that, with the current leadership, it will do so.
Are you worried that there could be an extension of the conflict in the area?
Logically, of course, the first actor that could appear at the moment is Lebanon. Because in the south of Lebanon, so that the readers understand us, there are all the combat brigades of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization financed, controlled directly by Iran. By the way, there have already been several skirmishes on the northern border, but Israel is already prepared and warned about this, after what has happened, logically, but once again using the Lebanese population as a hostage and as a human shield. In short, history repeats itself. Iran always comes out of all this unscathed. It is very curious. It always comes out unscathed. It is high time to set the record straight. But I want to clarify that it is not about the Iranians, it is about the regime of the ayatollahs, of Iran, where, by the way, we know that there are a lot of people inside Iran fighting against this regime. Thousands of people who have demonstrated, there are 30,000 political prisoners right now in Iran, who demonstrated when that girl was tortured and killed for carrying wrong in jihad. Man, enough is enough. That’s the regime that maintains instability and lives off instability, not only in the Middle East, but in Europe. Iran finances and has financed all those populist movements in Europe, just like Russia. That is why Russia and Iran are hand in hand. Russia, another great beneficiary of this whole operation, because now all the interest of the West is going to be in what is happening in the Middle East, moving away from the Ukrainian focus. Then, Iran and Russia, logically, authoritarian regimes, some theocratic, others oligarchic, doing each other all the favors.
That was the last question, do you think Russia is going to take advantage of this circumstance, this situation?
It is good that the spotlight is now focused elsewhere. Meanwhile, perhaps, probably, now it will provoke messages in the war in Ukraine, perhaps actions that it could not carry out, because the focus was there, now it will carry them out. Favors that are done between these regimes, of course, and what we democrats have to fight against.
