<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has called on Israel on Tuesday to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and Syria in order to guarantee the sovereignty of both countries and “stability and peace for all.”</strong></h4> Albares made these remarks during his speech at the public panel 'Diplomacy amid Disorder', organised within the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which was also attended by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar, Mohamed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud; Finland, Elina Valtonen, and Nigeria, Yusuf Tuggar. “I believe that we have a real opportunity to achieve peace, stability and future prosperity for the people of Lebanon and Syria,” the minister said during the event. “In both places, I believe that we must support peace and stability,” he warned. According to Albares, Spain is already doing this in Lebanon through the UN mission, UNIFIL, where “we have the leadership of the troops with a Spanish general (Arnoldo Lázaro) and where we are “helping the Lebanese armed forces to withdraw to the south of the country to guarantee sovereignty and also security for the Israeli people who live in the north.” The minister asked “the same for Syria,” where there is also a “real opportunity to bring future and stability to a country where 90 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.” According to Albares, Syria and Lebanon have a “very complex society” and the challenges they face are “enormous” and, therefore, we must collaborate with both countries (which he himself officially visited last week) so that they can face them and so that “an inclusive future can be achieved for Lebanese society and also for Syrian society.” “Of course, I call on Israel to withdraw its troops from both countries, Syria and Lebanon,” because that will help “support sovereignty and guarantee stability and peace for all,” he said. Israel and Hezbollah reached an agreement on November 27 to withdraw their forces from southern Lebanon before the current ceasefire ends on January 26, after which control of the area will pass to the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL. However, the withdrawal process has not yet been completed and both the UN and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun have urged Israel to meet the deadlines. Israel has occupied a significant part of the Golan Heights (a plateau on the border between Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria) since the 1967 war, but its army temporarily took control of the demilitarized zone last December, after the overthrow of the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad, claiming that the 1974 withdrawal agreement with Damascus had “collapsed” because Syrian troops had abandoned their posts. Spain, Albares said, is helping to promote peace, stability and prosperity for the Lebanese and Syrian peoples and for the Middle East region as a whole and “our voice in Brussels will push the European Union to go in that direction,” he concluded.
