Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, begins today a tour of the Middle East with the aim of promoting a regional de-escalation of the current armed conflict between Israel and Hamas and defending the two-state solution through the Peace Conference proposed by Spain and backed again yesterday by the EU.
The minister will travel to Lebanon today and will later travel to Iraq, where he will hold meetings at the highest level, according to the Ministry in a press release. Albares will carry out this tour after having participated in the Foreign Affairs Council, held yesterday in Brussels and in which the Middle East was one of the main points on the agenda of the meeting of European ministers.
During this tour, Albares will insist on the need to materialize the two-state solution through the convening of an International Peace Conference with the parties, as soon as possible. Likewise, the minister has decided to work for peace, security, stability and prosperity in the region, to which Spain contributes with UNIFIL peace missions and with support for security in Iraq.
Beirut will be the initial stop of this trip, which is the first that a Foreign Minister has made to this country since 2020. Albares plans to meet with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, with whom he agreed on the details of this visit only recently. a few days, at the meeting they held at the Davos summit (Switzerland).
Minister Albares will also take the opportunity to learn first-hand about the environment in which the Spanish troops operate and recognize the work being carried out in the region in close collaboration with the Lebanese army, with whose officials he will also meet. The Spanish contribution, with 656 soldiers, is key in the case of UNIFIL, now under the command of Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro.
Albares also has special interest in meeting with the heads of the Spanish NGDOs present in the country, to whom he also wants to convey the support of the Government of Spain for their extraordinary work in conditions of great difficulty. In 2023, Spain has doubled its contributions to Lebanon to 6.5 million euros and it is planned that said country will be included as a priority country for Spanish Cooperation in the 2024 Master Plan.
Iraq
Baghdad will be the second stop on this tour, which will begin at the Unión III Base, where he will meet with the Spanish military authorities and receive updated information on the mission that Spain carries out in Iraq, both within the framework of the Global Coalition against Daesh and in within the scope of the NATO Mission in Iraq, training and training members of the Ministries of Defense and Interior.
The minister will subsequently hold meetings with the authorities of that country, among others, with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, with whom he will review the bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as the situation in the region affected by the conflict in Gaza. Albares will also meet with President Abdul Latif Rachid and the Prime Minister, Mohamed Shia Al Soudani, in order to follow up on the visit that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, made to Iraq on December 27, and which served to promote relations between both countries.
