Former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana defends that any solution in the Middle East involves the two states for Israel and Palestine. However, the former head of European diplomacy sees it as “very difficult” to reach that scenario with Beniamín Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel, because he “is doing everything possible” to ensure that it does not exist. “I would prefer that the Israeli people decide to change their ruler,” Solana admitted yesterday in Barcelona, where he participated in a colloquium at the Círculo del Liceu organized jointly with the International Relations Forum and presented by Xavier Mas de Xaxàs, journalist for La Vanguardia.
For Solana, president of EsadeGeo, it is better for Israel to have a state as a neighbor, even if it is a terrorist state, than to have to deal with a terrorist group. And, furthermore, he stressed that if “Israel has to kill an entire people to put an end to this terrorist group, the international community is not going to allow it.” The former socialist minister believes that Israel's war in Gaza can be ended "with a lot of affection, care and hours of negotiation." With a casual tone aside, Solana considered that for both parties to sit down and talk, it is necessary to reinforce the Palestinian National Authority, which, in his opinion, “is very demoralized, without a strong leader and without hope that there can be a future for the Palestinian people.” ”. While “he who imposes [that is, Israel] must accept that he cannot impose everything and has to lower his position” of dominance. “Continuing to make settlements is objective nonsense,” he emphasized. At least 700,000 settlers live in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem with authorization from the Israeli government.
Solana – a witness to all the peace agreements between Israel and Palestine, including the one in Madrid in 1991, which “brought the two parties together for the first time” – stressed that “Israel has failed” all the treaties, but admitted that the West has also failed. has failed in its obligation to enforce them.
Beyond the Middle East, the man who led the Atlantic Alliance while Bill Clinton governed the United States, acknowledged that there is “great concern” about a possible victory for Donald Trump in November. “It will not be good for the world,” he warned and, specifically, for the war in Ukraine, about which the former president has said that “he is capable of resolving it in 24 hours, this means that he will make an agreement with Vladimir Putin.” , highlighted Solana, author of Witness to an Uncertain Time (Espasa, 2023).
