“We are on the good side of history,” they defend in the Moncloa. And Pedro Sánchez's absolute determination for Spain to recognize the Palestinian State before next summer encourages him to accelerate to add more European allies to this cause and purpose. After his recent tour of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the President of the Government continues with his intense agenda of trips and contacts to increase the “critical mass” of countries willing to promote the recognition of Palestine as a State, as the only way to solve the entrenched conflict with Israel, in the middle of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This same Thursday, Sánchez will participate in an informal dinner in Warsaw convened by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, which will be attended by the new Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, and other European leaders. Although the reason for the meeting is to prepare the extraordinary meeting of the European Council next week, at the Moncloa they assume that the dramatic situation in Gaza and the need to recognize the Palestinian State will also be addressed, an initiative that could also have powerful allies in the community club, as is the case of France, despite Germany's rejection.
The next day, this coming Friday, the Spanish president undertakes a new one-day mini-tour, which will take him in the morning to Oslo, where he will meet with the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Store, and in the afternoon to Dublin, where the new Prime Minister of Ireland, Simon Harris, awaits him. Both countries are also in favor of an upcoming recognition of the Palestinian State.
On Monday of next week, it will be Sánchez who will receive the new Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, in Madrid, in a first bilateral meeting in which the Palestinian issue will also be addressed. And, before the meeting of the extraordinary European Council begins on Wednesday, the Spanish president also plans to hold meetings with the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob, and with the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander de Croo, with whom Sánchez has already met. In November of last year, he shared his first tour of the Middle East, with stops in Israel, Palestine and Egypt.
On the margins of the last meeting of the European Council, on March 22, Sánchez already began to add allies to commit to an upcoming recognition of the Palestinian State, and promoted a joint declaration to which the prime ministers of Ireland also joined, Malta and Slovenia.
“Our objective is clear: to promote the recognition of Palestine as a State, at a key moment in which the conflict enters a decisive phase,” highlighted the Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría. “We want to stop the humanitarian disaster that is occurring in Gaza and contribute to the beginning as soon as possible of a political peace process that leads to the materialization of the two-state solution,” she stressed.
