The meeting of 43 European and Arab countries began this Monday in Barcelona with a call for the mobilization of the international community around the “two-state solution”, Israeli and Palestinian, in the Middle East.
The two-state solution “will contribute decisively to peace and security throughout the region,” said the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, at the opening of the meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), an intergovernmental organization of which the European Commission is a part. , the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) and 16 other Mediterranean countries, including Israel, which decided, however, not to be in Barcelona this Monday.
Albares, the host of the meeting, called on the international community to “not waste any more time” and mobilize around a peace conference for the Middle East.
“We meet today with a call to action, to mobilization for peace, a peace that this time must be definitive, we must not see so many innocent civilians die again,” said the Spanish minister.
The UfM meeting is co-chaired by the head of EU diplomacy, the Spanish Josep Borrell, and the Jordanian minister, Ayman Safadi.
Borrell also stated, in the opening session of the meeting, that long-term peace and security in the Middle East, including the security of Israel and the Israeli people, will only be possible with the establishment and recognition of the Palestinian State.
For Borrell, an army cannot maintain long-term security, only peace can do that.
The Jordanian minister spoke in the same vein, defending that the two States are “the only path to lasting peace” in the region and affirming that the Arab countries are willing and available to work with European partners and also with the United States. to end the conflict in the Middle East.
The two ministers and Borrell also unanimously condemned the October 7 attack on Israel by the radical Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip, but also stressed that the Israeli response violates international law.
“One horror does not justify another horror,” said Borrel, who, as Albares and Ayman Safadi recalled, has already killed 15,000 Palestinian civilians since October 7 in the Gaza Strip in Israel’s response to the Hamas attack.
The three leaders celebrated the truce of recent days, but asked that it be extended and transformed into a permanent ceasefire, to pave the way for “a political solution,” in Borrell’s words, and to immediately reach the population of Gaza, humanitarian aid. help and supplies you need.
José Manuel Albares also reiterated the Spanish position that the Palestinian Authority should regain control of the Gaza Strip, stressing that Hamas is not “a peace partner.”
The Spanish minister affirmed that to achieve this the Palestinian Authority – which is represented at the Barcelona meeting this Monday – must be revitalized and helped by the international community.
Source: TSF
