Israel boycotts UfM Forum again and Palestine debuts as State recognized by Spain

Eduardo González Israel will be absent, for the second consecutive year, from the Regional Forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), which will bring together this Monday, October 28 in Barcelona the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Member States to address, among other issues, "the alarming situation in the Middle East," according to the organization. Instead, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has highlighted the participation of Palestine “for the first time as a State formally recognized by Spain.” The ninth Regional Forum will bring together representatives of the 43 Member States of the UfM and will be co-chaired by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, and by Ayman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan, in the presence of the Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Nasser Kamel. The Forum will be hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, is invited to represent the Arab-Islamic Ministerial Committee. On the other hand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has specified that “the holding of the Forum will allow Minister Albares to hold multiple bilateral meetings with his counterparts in the region.” The Union for the Mediterranean is a Euro-Mediterranean intergovernmental organisation that brings together the countries of the European Union and 16 countries of the southern and eastern Mediterranean, including Israel, Palestine and Lebanon. The eighth Regional Forum of the UfM, held in Barcelona on 27 November 2023, was boycotted by Israel in protest at the decision of its organisers to change the agenda to address, almost exclusively, the crisis in the Middle East, just a month and a half after the Hamas attacks in Israel and the start of the Israeli armed operation against the Gaza Strip. The meeting was not attended by any member of Benjamin Netanyahu's government or his ambassador in Madrid, Rodica Radian-Gordon. According to sources close to the event's organization contacted by The Diplomat, Israel's absence from this year's meeting can now be confirmed, which comes at the height of the Middle East conflict and coincides with a serious deterioration in diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel due to the decision of Pedro Sánchez's Executive to recognize the State of Palestine. This fact, and Spain's general position regarding the Middle East conflict (support for UNRWA, repeated request for a ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and support for an action by the International Court of Justice against Israel) has resulted in particularly harsh comments by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, against the Spanish government. In a press release issued this past Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs highlighted that the Forum, in which “Palestine participates for the first time as a State formally recognized by Spain,” will focus on “analyzing the most urgent regional challenges, with special attention to the worrying situation in the Middle East and the role that the UfM can play in favor of the resolution of the conflict through Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.” During the meeting, it is also planned to address the reform of the UfM, initiated in 2023 and 16 years after its creation in Paris, in July 2008. In 2010, with the signing of the Headquarters Agreement with Spain, the UfM Secretariat was established in Barcelona, with its physical location in the Pedralbes Palace. Since its creation, the UfM has maintained its work program with the holding of multiple events and meetings that have had the support and participation of all its members.

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