Spain “strongly condemns” Iran’s bombing of Israel and calls for an end to “regional escalation”

Eduardo González The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, have condemned the bombing launched by Iran against Israel in response to the start of the Israeli ground offensive against southern Lebanon and have demanded that “this spiral of violence ends now”. “I have just spoken with (the UN Secretary General), António Guterres, about the alarming situation in the Middle East,” Sánchez declared through the social network X. “The Government of Spain condemns Iran's attack against Israel and calls for this spiral of violence to end now,” he continued. “To achieve peace, a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon is essential, and that international law and international humanitarian law be respected.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a brief statement in which it said that “the Government strongly condemns Iran’s bombing of Israel tonight.” “The international community must immediately mobilize to stop the regional escalation with unforeseeable consequences,” it added. For his part, Albares has condemned “clearly and unequivocally” the launching of missiles by Iran against Israel. “We are facing a situation of extreme gravity,” Albares declared to Cadena SER. “What we have been announcing for months, asking the entire international community, and of course Spain doing everything in its power to prevent it from happening, is happening, and it is the extension of the war to Lebanon,” he lamented. “The Israeli incursion into Lebanon, which is a sovereign State, and the launching of rockets from Iran into Israel, which we condemn unequivocally, is a new step towards a total regional war,” he warned. The minister recalled the meeting he held last week with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, whom “I asked, I urged, not to use violence and to use all the influence he has over his related groups, be it Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen or the Shiite groups in Iraq, to contain this escalation.” «We are making a new appeal to all actors, of course, including Israel, to restraint, to non-escalation, to responsibility, and, of course, to the international community, starting with the UN Security Council, which currently has a peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL,» declared Albares. «We all have to unite to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, to achieve a truce in Lebanon and for peace to return, and for it to be definitive,» he added. «All this madness has to stop and Spain will do everything in its power to achieve this,» added the minister, who assured that, for the moment, there is no «scenario» of the conflict extending beyond the region. «Nobody wants those Iranian missiles to reach Israel. It is something, as I was saying, that we condemn without hesitation, as we condemn the terrorist attack of October 7, now that we are a few days away from celebrating the first anniversary of the Hamas attack, or as we have systematically condemned the launching of Hezbollah missiles,» he continued. According to Albares, “at the moment we have no indication that other Arab countries could become involved in the response to Israel.” “I speak very often with all my Arab colleagues and they all express their anger, frustration, weariness. Their public opinion also demands their accountability. We are all called to be very aware of the extreme gravity of this situation at this time,” he said. Later, in statements to Spanish National Radio, Albares said that, “of course, we are shocked by the missile attack from Iran, which we clearly condemn, as we are shocked by the news, the images that we have seen in recent days from Lebanon.” “The war has to end now, and of course we are not going to spare any effort,” he warned. “We need an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, an immediate truce in Lebanon, and for the peace conference to open the way for which Spain has been working for so many months to implement the definitive solution for peace and stability in the Middle East, which is the existence of a State of Palestine that coexists in good neighbourhood with a State of Israel,” he added. The “unbearable” extension of the conflict In the morning, Albares declared, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers, that the Government is following with “maximum concern the escalation and the extension of the conflict in the Middle East to Lebanon”. ·“This is a conflict that claims hundreds of human lives every day, most of them innocent civilians, and that has already forced more than a million people to move”, he continued. “It is an unbearable conflict for the most basic humanity and it must cease as soon as possible, as we have been requesting for many months now,” because “we cannot resign ourselves, Spain and its foreign policy will certainly not do so, to war being the normal and habitual way of relating between the peoples of the Middle East,” the minister said. “To achieve peace, there is only one effective path: compliance with International Law, respect for International Humanitarian Law, which requires the protection of civilians even in the event of conflict; dialogue and mutual recognition between the different parties,” he warned. Albares also recalled that “Spain has firmly condemned Hezbollah's missile launches on Israel, as we condemned, on October 7, the terrorist attack by Hamas,” but warned that “Israel's recent attacks, unfortunately, have also cost the lives of more than 1,600 people in Lebanon, in the last few days alone.” “We are talking about the highest number of victims in Lebanon in the last 30 years,” he said. “This spiral of violence must stop,” he concluded. The minister also warned that “the conflict fronts are multiplying in Yemen and Iraq,” which is “bringing the region to the brink of open war.” “The international community and Spain must assume our responsibilities, Iran and Israel must act with restraint to avoid scenarios,” he said. Hours after these words, the minister condemned “without hesitation” the launching of missiles by Iran against Israel. “We are facing a situation of extreme gravity,” declared Albares to Cadena SER. “What we have been announcing for months, asking the entire international community, and of course Spain doing everything in its power, so that it does not happen, is happening, and it is the extension of the war to Lebanon,” he lamented. “The Israeli incursion into Lebanon, which is a sovereign State, and the launching of rockets from Iran to Israel, which we condemn without hesitation, is a new step towards a total regional war,” he warned. The minister recalled the meeting he held last week with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, whom "I asked, I urged, not to use violence and to use all the influence he has over his related groups, be it Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen or the Shiite groups in Iraq, to contain this escalation." "We make a new call to all actors, of course, including Israel, to restraint, to non-escalation, to responsibility, and, of course, to the international community, starting with the UN Security Council, which currently has a peacekeeping operation in Lebanon, UNIFIL," said Albares. "We all have to unite to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza, to achieve a truce in Lebanon and for peace to return, and for it to be definitive," he added. "All this madness has to stop and Spain will do everything in its power to do so," added the minister, who assured that, for the moment, there is no "scenario" of the conflict extending beyond the region. Criticism of Israel Albares expressed a similar opinion during the informal and extraordinary EU Foreign Affairs Council convened this Monday by the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell. The minister's words were responded to by the Israeli government, which quoted him expressly, through its official account on the X network: "Are Israeli citizens worth less in your eyes? These are the twelve children that Hezbollah killed in Majdal Shams while they were playing football." Separately, the foreign minister met by telephone with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi, to discuss the situation in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. "We will continue to join forces for a ceasefire to prevent more civilian deaths, the arrival of humanitarian aid and the release of hostages. Resolution 1701 must be fully implemented," he declared through X. Resolution 1701 of the United Nations Security Council was approved in 2006 to establish a permanent ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. Evacuation of Spaniards Albares also said at the same press conference that “so far, there is no record of any Spanish victims in Lebanon,” and recalled that his Ministry has a “detailed evacuation plan” for the nearly one thousand Spaniards who reside in Lebanon, but he did not want to clarify its details for security reasons. Among the thousand Spaniards registered in Lebanon, he said, there are people with dual nationality, their relatives, Spaniards in transit and even a dozen journalists. In any case, he said, both the Foreign Ministry and the Spanish Embassy in Lebanon have “perfectly located and situated the Spaniards” residing in the country, who “can be certain and assured that, at the moment in which we consider that the conditions have deteriorated so much that evacuation is necessary, we will do so.” To this end, he explained, he himself remains in contact with the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, so that, “when we make the political decision to go ahead with the evacuation plan”, “the appropriate means can be put in place”. Albares also recalled the presence of 669 Spanish troops in the UN mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is under Spanish command and whose mandate is based on resolution 1701, which “continues to contain all the necessary elements to resolve this crisis and must be fully applied by the parties”. UNIFIL on Tuesday denounced the Israeli invasion as a "violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Lebanon and a "violation of resolution 1701." The Minister also recalled that the Government's foreign policy is set by him and President Pedro Sánchez and he assured that “the entire Government is united as one in the same objective: to achieve peace in the Middle East, respect for International Humanitarian Law for the protection of all civilians”. Díaz and Urtasun condemn the invasion and call for sanctions against Israel Precisely, the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, warned this Tuesday through the X network that “the violation of International Law is the way of being in the world of the regime of (Benjamin) Netanyahu” and, therefore, “the international community must respond with the maximum sanctions”, because “there are many lives at stake”. For his part, the spokesman for Sumar and Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, has condemned the “invasion of Israel to a sovereign country like Lebanon” and has censured the “permissiveness” of the international community with Netanyahu, which is “intolerable and is dragging the world into a global war escalation”. For his part, the PP spokesman in Congress, Miguel Tellado, had to respond to statements by former Prime Minister José María Aznar, in which he said that “if Israel does not win, the next battle will be on the coasts and in the southern part of Europe.” Without wanting to evaluate these words, Tellado assured that his party “condemns” the escalation of the conflict, demands an “immediate ceasefire” and is in favour of “maintaining the common positions of the European Union and NATO.” He also announced that the PP has requested the appearance of the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles, in Congress to address this issue. After these statements, the PSOE spokesman in Congress, Patxi López, declared that “this Government has asked Israel to stop the invasion of Lebanon and that there be a ceasefire in the territories of Gaza.” "It is not about Europe, as Tellado said, no, we also have to be activists in the defense of human rights and in the request for Israel to cease all activity and seek a two-state solution," he added. star_border

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