Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received yesterday in Madrid his counterpart from the Sultanate of Oman, Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi, who expressed his “gratitude” for the “firm position of Spain” regarding “the Palestinian cause.”
“I receive in Madrid my counterpart from Oman, Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi,” declared Albares through his official account on the social network X. “We have reviewed our bilateral relations, which we want to strengthen, and the situation in the Middle East” and “I have conveyed Spain’s commitment to the peace and stability of the region,” he added.
For his part, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman on its website, Sayyid Badr Al Busaidi expressed to Albares “his gratitude for the firm Spanish position regarding the Palestinian cause.”
During the meeting, according to the same source, the two ministers “discussed a series of regional and global issues,” among which they highlighted “the repercussions of the continued Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip,” the need to “exert pressure to stop the violence and war in the Gaza Strip” and the “lifting of the bloc to guarantee the flow of aid and humanitarian material to the population.”
The meeting took place a few days after concluding Albares’ third tour of the Middle East since Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip began in retaliation for the Hamas attacks on October 7.
The first tour took place in the last week of January in Lebanon and Iraq, the second tour took place in early February in three Gulf countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and the third took place last week in Jordan and Egypt. In Cairo, the minister called for the launch of a “joint initiative” between the European Union and the Arab League that would allow the holding, “as soon as possible,” of the international peace conference on the Middle East proposed by Spain for the materialization of the two-state solution.
In addition, yesterday was the second conversation between Albares and Al Busaidi to address the situation in the Middle East. The previous one took place by telephone on January 21 and, on that occasion, the minister stated that it is “necessary to stop the fire and prevent an escalation in the region” and his Omani counterpart, as yesterday, thanked Spain for the “noble position” before “the just Palestinian cause”, since the Spanish Government “has sought to stop the violence in the Strip Gaza from the first moment of the war.”
In November, the ambassador of Oman in Spain, Omar Al Kathiri, reaffirmed, during the reception for the Sultanate’s National Day, “the unwavering support” of his country “for the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights to freedom, dignity and self-determination”, denounced the “brutal Israeli aggression” in Gaza and stated that “the only solution is to end the illegitimate Israeli occupation, and establish an independent Palestinian State”, with “the borders of June 1947 and with East Jerusalem as its capital ”.
