Eduardo González
The acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, will be present tomorrow at the international summit to be held in Egypt to address the current conflict in the Gaza Strip following the terrorist attack perpetrated by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) against Israel on 7 October, the Government announced yesterday.
The summit, called by the Egyptian president, Abdelfatá al Sisi, is expected to discuss the situation in the region and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as well as the future of the Palestinian cause, according to Moncloa in a statement, in which the meeting is part of the effort to “mobilise the international community with the aim of halting the current spiral of violence and seeking solutions to the conflict”.
The meeting will be attended by several leaders from the region, as well as some Europeans, and there has even been speculation that US President Joe Biden, who was in Israel on Wednesday, could attend. According to Moncloa, Germany, France and Italy have been invited at the European level, as well as Algeria and Morocco, in addition to China and Brazil.
The Egyptian press reported yesterday that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the emirs of Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, among others, as well as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, are expected to attend.
The president, who had spoken by telephone with Al Sisi on Tuesday, will travel to the summit accompanied by the foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, who, in turn, spoke with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, about “the situation in Gaza and the region”. “We must prevent the escalation of violence, protect the civilian population and guarantee the entry of humanitarian aid. We must work to reach a definitive peace solution”, the Spanish minister wrote on the social network X.
In fact, Pedro Sánchez, who had not travelled to Israel in recent days as some of his European colleagues have done, spoke by telephone yesterday with two of the leaders who will attend the Cairo meeting – Antonio Guterres and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani – to discuss humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and the need to “avoid an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East”.
I have just had a conversation with António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, about the dramatic situation in the Middle East,” Sánchez declared on the social network X. “I have conveyed to him all my support for him and I have told him that I am very grateful to him for the support he has given me. “I have conveyed to him my full support in his calls for respect for international and humanitarian law and the protection of civilians,” he continued. “Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza immediately,” he warned. “Spain has increased its aid to the United Nations so that it can respond to the emergency situation in Gaza and save lives,” he concluded.
Sánchez also spoke with the Emir of Qatar to express his “gratitude for the mediation efforts that Qatar is carrying out to avoid an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East”, as he reported on the same social network. “We share the same concerns: humanitarian aid must reach Gaza and all hostages must be released immediately,” he added. Sánchez also spoke in recent days with King Abdullah II of Jordan.
For his part, the acting foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, in addition to his Egyptian counterpart, spoke with his Jordanian counterpart, as part of Spain’s diplomatic efforts in relation to the conflict. “I have spoken with my Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, about the situation in Gaza,” he declared via his account on X. “We must join forces to avoid a regional escalation at all costs, and start working now to reach a definitive peace solution in the Middle East,” he added.
