Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, began yesterday in Amman his third tour of the Middle East, which will include Jordan and Egypt and in which he will address the commitment of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to bring to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament), in this same legislature, the formal recognition of “a realistic and viable Palestinian State”, under “a single Palestinian Authority” and “with its capital in East Jerusalem”.
“I come with a reinforced spirit to give a new impetus to peace in a region whose population suffers every day the consequences of a conflict that we all have to stop, and that is the main message that I am going to convey,” Amman declared to journalists. upon arrival in Amman.
This is Albares’ third tour of the region so far this year, after visiting Lebanon and Iraq at the end of January and his most recent trip to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The new tour began yesterday with a private invitation from his Jordanian counterpart, Aymán Safadi, to an iftar, the dinner with which the Ramadan fast is broken after sunset and with which, according to Foreign Affairs, “a deep friendship is symbolized.” by sharing a table at a time of day that is so important for the Islamic world.”
Today, Albares will meet with Safadi, visit a refugee camp of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Amman and will travel to Cairo, where he will hold a meeting with the directors of UN agencies that carry out their work in the country. The visit to the UNRWA field occurs just a week after announcing in Madrid to the commissioner general of this United Nations agency, Philippe Lazzarini, an additional donation of 20 million euros that joins the 3.5 million recently granted.
Also in the Egyptian capital, Albares will be received tomorrow by his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, whom, according to the minister, he will thank “the help he gave to Spain for the departure of the contingent of Spaniards and Spanish-Palestinians who were in Gaza. at the beginning of the war.” Later, he will meet with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
“Jordan and Egypt are two countries that are at the forefront of aid to Palestine” and that “have been betting exactly the same as us on the two-state solution for many years,” Albares declared. For this reason, he assured, “Spain wants to take advantage of the harmony it has with Jordan and Egypt to give that decisive push to that goal of peace.”
“Spain has a prominent position on the Middle East within the EU and, in fact, the Spanish initiative of the Peace Conference has been endorsed by the 27 member states and adopted by very important actors, such as the Arab League, with whose representatives I I am also going to meet on this tour in Cairo,” he added.
In this context, according to Albares, the “emergency solutions” put in place to respond “to the Palestinian emergency that Palestine and the Palestinian people are experiencing” must be “the prelude to a definitive and structural solution” through materialization “without delay.” , on the part of the international community, of “the two-state solution.” “This means that we must contribute to building a realistic and viable Palestinian State, which includes the West Bank and Gaza under a single Palestinian Authority connected by a corridor, with an exit to the sea and with its capital in East Jerusalem,” he warned.
“I come to speak about that, and the commitment expressed by the President of the Government to bring the recognition of the Palestinian State to the Cortes Generales during this legislature and also to materialize it in a formal act of Government during this third tour, which I hope, together with all my interlocutors, that we can take firm steps towards peace for the Palestinians, for the Israelis and for the Middle East,” he concluded.
