Eduardo González
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares affirmed this Friday that Spain is “ready” to participate in the reconstruction of Gaza, “even with troops,” provided there is “a clear mandate from the United Nations” and that the process “is led by the Palestinian Authority.”
The minister made these statements during his participation in the panel ‘Life Under Destruction: Building Blocks for a New Gaza,’ on the first day of the 62nd Munich Security Conference (MSC 2926), the world’s most important annual event on this subject.
During the panel, the moderator, American journalist Sarah Kelly (from the German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle), recalled the words of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in which he affirmed that Spain would be willing to send troops for a peacekeeping mission in Gaza, and therefore asked Albares what Spain needed to fulfill that commitment.
“Certainly, a clear mandate from the United Nations and for the Palestinian Authority to be at the center of the process,” the minister responded. “I believe there are steps we need to take first,” such as the “massive entry of humanitarian aid through all land crossings into Gaza” and that the process be “led by the Palestinians and, therefore, by the Palestinian Authority, which is our partner for peace on the Palestinian side,” he continued.
If these conditions are met, “of course, Spain is ready to participate, even with troops,” he added. On January 8, Pedro Sánchez announced to the Conference of Ambassadors his intention to propose to the Congress of Deputies the deployment of Spanish peacekeeping troops to Palestine, “when that opportunity arises, when we can, once and for all, see how progress is made in this peace process and, why not, in the medium term, hopefully more soon, in the recognition of the two states, Israel and Palestine.”
The panel also included the participation of the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen; Anwar Mohamed Gargash, presidential diplomatic advisor and former Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates; former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (a supporter of the two-state solution and opponent of the Israeli occupation of Gaza); and the newly appointed Director-General of the Peace Board (the international entity promoted by Trump to oversee the peace process in Gaza, which Spain and almost no other EU member state have joined), the Bulgarian Nickolay Mladenov. and Christopher Murphy, a Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an opponent of Israeli military operations in Gaza.
On the sidelines of the conference, Albares met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha, assuring him that Spain will continue to support his country and strengthen its energy system, which has been severely damaged by ongoing Russian attacks. He also held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, and Qatar, and met with the CEOs of companies such as AMP Terminals, Schwarz Group, Airbus, and Qualcomm Technology, as well as with Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard and the Deputy Spokesperson for the SPD in the Bundestag.