Eduardo González
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, intervened yesterday before the United Nations Security Council to ask that Palestine be admitted as “one more member” of the UN because it is “the only way to put an end to this loop of violence.”
The Security Council held an open debate yesterday in New York at the ministerial level to address a proposal by Algeria for Palestine to upgrade from an observer to a full member of the United Nations. The proposal was approved by a large majority but was rejected due to the United States veto.
“The Palestinian people have the right to hope and the Israeli people have the right to security,” Albares declared during his speech. “Last Saturday, Iran’s unacceptable attack on Israel, which we strongly condemn, has brought us one step closer to the abyss,” he warned. “In the coming weeks, all parties must show restraint to stop the violence and lay the foundations for a peaceful future,” because “the risk of regional escalation is more real than ever” and, in the face of this situation, “there is no other alternative.” “We must direct our efforts towards a political solution,” he continued.
“The only way to put an end to this loop of recurring violence is the two-state solution, assumed by the entire international community,” and there is “one way to achieve it: recognize Palestine as one more in this organization of the United Nations” he proclaimed. “For this reason, today my voice, and the voice of Spain, joins those of those who ask for it,” he said. “Spain has decided to join the 139 countries that have already done so and will recognize the Palestinian State and today supports its entry into the United Nations in this Security Council,” he announced.
“Spain is going to recognize the Palestinian State because the Palestinian people cannot be condemned to being a people of refugees, because it is the way to peace in the Middle East, because it is good for the security of Israel,” Albares continued. “Spain is going to recognize the Palestinian State because they have the right to a future with hope just as the Israeli people have the right to a future in peace and security and after so many decades of pain we know that there cannot be one without the other,” he added.
The minister also recalled that “Spain has proposed holding an International Peace Conference in the shortest possible time, the objective of which is to advance towards the materialization of this solution.” “The European Union has endorsed our proposal, and so have the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in total, more than 80 countries” and, therefore, “I invite this Council and the Secretary General of the United Nations United to endorse the proposal, so that multilateral diplomacy in action contributes to opening a new page of history in the Middle East: that of definitive peace,” added José Manuel Albares.
US veto
55 countries participated in the open debate (many more than the fifteen members of the organization), including Spain. To move forward with the proposal, the favorable vote of at least nine members was needed and that none of the five permanent members – the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom – used their right of veto.
Finally, the proposal obtained the support of the vast majority of the members of the Security Council (thirteen out of fifteen, with the only abstention of the United Kingdom), but it has not prospered because, as feared, the United States made use of the right of veto that had been reserved in case of not obtaining the six blocking votes necessary to stop the proposal. However, this will not prevent the proposal from going to the General Assembly, in application of the recent reform of the regulations for matters that are subject to a veto in the Council. The US believes that the Palestinian State can only emerge from negotiations based on a peace agreement in the Middle East.
Ahead of the meeting, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “recent escalations make it even more important to support good faith efforts to find lasting peace between Israel and a fully independent, viable and sustainable Palestinian state.” sovereign”.
During the debate, the Palestinian ambassador, Ziad Abu Amr, asked that the same procedure that allowed Israel’s admission in 1947 be applied to Palestine: the approval of a resolution by the General Assembly. For his part, Israel’s ambassador, Gilad Erdan, harshly criticized the proposal and attacked the UN, which he accused of being “committed to multiterrorism” instead of multilateralism.
Albares held bilateral meetings in New York with his counterpart from Jordan, Ayman Safadi, with whom he addressed the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the situation in the region, and with his counterpart from Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, to talk about the criticism situation in the Middle East and the need to move towards peace in the region “by applying the two-state solution,” as reported on the social network X.
