At a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Spaniard Pedro Sanchez proposes international peace talks.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Sanchez, whose new government was sworn in earlier this month, proposed an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during talks with Netanyahu on Thursday.
The socialist leader also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later Thursday in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank before traveling on to Egypt.
“Today, more than ever, we need to create a serious and credible prospect for peace,” Sanchez said after talks with Netanyahu. “Without a political solution, we will inevitably fall back into a never-ending cycle of violence.”
While Sánchez stressed that he supports Israel’s right to defend itself after the Oct. 7 “atrocities” committed by Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza, he said the number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s military response were “really unbearable”.
According to Israeli authorities, about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel, and about 240 others were taken to Gaza as prisoners.
Since the attack, Israel has bombarded Gaza in an air and ground campaign, severely restricting supplies of water, food and fuel to the territory’s 2.3 million residents. According to Palestinian authorities, more than 14,500 people, including more than 6,000 children, were killed in the Israeli attack on Gaza.
The last U.S.-brokered round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014 and prospects for a revival appear to have worsened amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Sanchez said he and unnamed colleagues had suggested holding an international peace conference with the parties as soon as possible. He said the European Union, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation had all supported the idea.
“It is in Israel’s interest to work for peace, and today peace means the establishment of a viable Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, according to UN resolutions,” he said.
United States officials said it was not the right time to restart peace talks given continued intransigence from both sides.
Sanchez attended the meetings along with his Belgian counterpart Alexander De Croo. Your two countries each hold the current and upcoming rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Last week, Sanchez said a Union for the Mediterranean summit in Barcelona on November 27-28 would be an “ideal place” to restart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue because both sides would “sit on equal footing.” would.
Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs limited parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are members of the Mediterranean group, along with neighbors Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.
British Prime Minister Cameron meets Netanyahu
In 1991, Madrid hosted a multilateral peace conference aimed at resolving the conflict through negotiations based on the “land for peace” formula, which ultimately led to the 1993 Oslo Interim Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority.
But a series of follow-up negotiations to create a Palestinian state in areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war failed due to stubborn differences over borders, Palestinian refugees, Israel’s steady expansion of settlements on occupied land and the status of Jerusalem.
When he was sworn in for a new term this month, Sanchez said his foreign policy priority would be “working in Europe and in Spain for the recognition of the Palestinian state.”
Several smaller European states such as Sweden and Malta have recognized Palestine, but so far no major EU member has taken this step.
Sanchez governs in a minority coalition with the left-wing extremist group Sumar. In October, the Israeli embassy in Spain accused some of Sánchez’s ministers of allying with Hamas after a far-left cabinet minister called the Israeli military offensive in Gaza a “genocide.”
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron also met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday after a visit to the south of the country. He said the agreed four-day ceasefire was an opportunity to get some of Israel’s prisoners out of Gaza and he hoped that “everyone who has responsibility and stands behind this agreement can make this happen.”
“There is no hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israel and the Arab states, unless we stamp out this murderous movement that threatens the future of us all,” Cameron said, referring to Hamas.