Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, announced yesterday in Beirut that Spain is going to “quadruple” development aid to Lebanon to reach 30 million euros in the next three years. Likewise, he visited two Spanish Cooperation projects in the country and met with the Spanish contingent at the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whom he decorated with the Tie of the Order of Isabel la Católica.
“We are going to quadruple the cooperation budget of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in Lebanon to reach 30 million euros in the next three years,” declared the minister during a press conference, in which He recalled that Spain has already doubled its aid to this country in 2023, up to 6.5 million euros.
Likewise, he assured that it is up to the Lebanese Government to determine the areas of collaboration with Spanish Cooperation, although he specified that, based on the meetings he has had in the country, everything indicates that they will be “renewable energies, water and sanitation and job creation.” in addition to attention to Syrian and Palestinian refugees in the country. Lebanon, which has been going through a serious economic crisis since 2019, hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees and (officially) half a million Palestinian refugees.
Albares has visited Lebanon as part of a tour of the Middle East to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians and in the region as a whole. The tour, which includes Iraq, began this past Tuesday in Beirut with a meeting with the prime minister of this country, Najib Mikati.
Yesterday, the minister visited two Spanish Cooperation projects: a school with 200 students built by the AECID after the 2020 explosion in the port of Beirut and a project to access drinking water in Sidon (south) for 10,000. people. In this regard, Albares assured at the press conference that Lebanon is going to become a “priority country” within the 2024 Master Plan and that Spanish Cooperation “will from now on have a permanent structure in Beirut, within the Embassy.”
At the same press conference, the minister also assured that Spain and Lebanon share the need to “take decisive steps” towards peace (in the midst of an increase in armed clashes between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah) and that he is leaving the country. “with the satisfaction of having managed to add more efforts to achieve peace” in the region. Likewise, he expressed Spain’s commitment to “full and balanced compliance with all the elements of United Nations Security Council resolution 1701”, approved after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Albares also met yesterday with the head of the Lebanese Army, Joseph Aoun, with whom he spoke “about the security situation in Lebanon and the region” and to whom he conveyed that “Lebanon is a fundamental country for the stability of the region and a partner of Spain for peace,” as reported by the minister through his official account on the social network X.
Next, Albares visited the 656 Spanish soldiers of the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Spain’s largest military contingent in a United Nations mission. During his visit, he met with the current commander of UNIFIL, Spanish General Aroldo Lázaro, and with General Pablo Gómez Lera, head of the Lebanon Brigade, and praised the “essential” work carried out by the Blue Helmets “for the stability in Lebanon and the region.”
“Your work is, without a doubt, contributing to avoiding an even greater escalation of tension in the Middle East, through your patrols to monitor the separation line between Lebanon and Israel or the establishment of observatories that you carry out,” he stated before the Spanish military. “You know very well, the conflict and tension in the Middle East continues to worsen despite all our efforts,” he continued. “For this reason, your presence here is more important, that is why I have come to Lebanon and will continue on a tour of the region,” added the minister, who decorated the Spanish brigade in the south of Lebanon (the Extremaduran BRILIB LX contingent) with the Tie of the Order of Isabel la Católica.
Iraq
After his visit to Lebanon, José Manuel Albares moved last night to Iraq, where today he will hold meetings with the highest authorities of that country: his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein; the president, Abdul Latif Rachid; and the Prime Minister, Mohamed Shia Al Soudani.
Likewise, he plans to visit the Unión III Base to meet with the Spanish military authorities to receive updated information on the mission that Spain carries out in this country, both within the framework of the Global Coalition against Daesh and within the scope of the NATO Mission. in Iraq for training and training members of the Ministries of Defense and Interior. He will also meet with the commander of the Atlantic Alliance Mission in Iraq, Spanish Lieutenant General José Antonio Agüero Martínez.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, made an official visit to Iraq on December 27 and 28. On that occasion (the first visit by a head of the Spanish Executive to this country since the one made by José María Aznar in 2003 after the Anglo-American invasion), Al Soudani thanked Sánchez in person for his “brave” position regarding the conflict between Israel. and Hamas.
