<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has spoken with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, and asked her to "take a stand in favor of the European citizens" who were part of the Freedom Flotilla.</strong></h4> Likewise, according to sources from the Foreign Office, the minister spoke throughout Thursday with his Irish counterpart, Simon Harris, to discuss the Israeli assault on the Freedom Flotilla and is analyzing the situation with other countries with nationals participating in the humanitarian initiative, such as Turkey and Brazil. On Thursday morning, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Israeli chargé d'affaires in Spain, Dana Erlich, to convey the government's condemnation of the interception of the Flotilla and the detention of several Spaniards traveling aboard this humanitarian mission to Gaza. As José Manuel Albares explained to TVE's "La Hora de la 1," the purpose of this call is to convey the government's protest and demand that Israel respect the rights of the detained Spaniards "at all times." "They must be released and returned to Spain immediately. They are peaceful citizens who had a humanitarian purpose," he warned. "They did not represent any threat nor did they have any intention of harassing or carrying out any type of illegal action, and therefore, I understand that they should not be accused of anything at all," Albares stated. "They are peaceful citizens who were exercising a right, which is a humanitarian right, in international waters. They are not a threat to anyone. I insist, they were in international waters," he stated. Therefore, he warned, "I will not accept any unjust and unfounded accusations against them." The detained Spaniards, Albares assured, enjoy the "total diplomatic protection" of the Ministry and, at this time, "the urgent thing is that they regain their freedom and return to Spain immediately." The more than 40 ships in the Flotilla, with 500 people on board, including dozens of Spaniards, were attacked Wednesday night by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in waters where they "have no jurisdiction," using "contaminated" water cannons and "systematically" blocking the ships' communications, according to reports early this morning from the organizers of the humanitarian mission, who have called for the mobilization of the international community to denounce these "new acts of aggression against unarmed civilians."
