Clueless tourists who approached Sant Pau's impressive modernist site yesterday encountered streets jammed with police officers. The VIII forum of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), an intergovernmental organization aimed at promoting development and stability in the region, was held there, in a meeting that was supposed to celebrate its fifteenth anniversary, but with content absorbed for the war between Hamas and Israel, the only item on the agenda.
The meeting, co-chaired by Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the European Union, and Aiman Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, addressed the question of how to contribute to peace between Palestinians and Israelis through of two main points: the extension of the truce and the recovery of the two-state solution. However, the impact of the meeting was limited by the absence of Israel at the meeting, which lamented the change in the agenda of the meeting.
At the meeting there were "agreements and disagreements", as Safadi commented, but all agreed on the need to respect international law, the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, the cessation of hostilities - but with different intonations -, and the recovery of the solution of the two states to bring the end of the conflict on track. In this sense, Borrell emphasized the importance of "promoting a political agreement that allows us to make what we have so often proclaimed" a reality, to prevent the loss of civilian lives from continuing "generation after generation and funeral after funeral".
Borrell presented four steps to take. The first would be the already approved extension of the truce between Hamas and Israel, allowing the release of all hostages and a definitive ceasefire. Secondly, the "recolonization" of Gaza by Israel must be avoided and the "illegal colonization" in the West Bank must be rejected. The return of the Palestinian National Authority to Gaza will be the last point.
Both the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and Borrell defended the role of the ANP in terms of the management of Gaza once the conflict ends. As the Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riad al-Maliki, had already done before, also at the meeting, Borrell recalled that, despite the fact that Hamas took power in the 2006 elections, it is the ANP that has guaranteed the services public in Gaza.
After ruling out the options of Israel occupying the Gazan territory, an Arab country taking it over or "leaving it abandoned" to its fate, Borrell described the ANP as the most legitimate political actor to take control from Gaza However, the European diplomat acknowledged that the organization led by Mahmud Abbas can be "perfected and improved" and that there should be elections "as soon as possible".
Borrell urged the support of the international community to prevent a power vacuum from turning Gaza into a "cradle for more violence and more terrorism", from which Europe would be the first to suffer the consequences. The strongest position at the press conference after the meeting came from Jordanian Aiman Safadi, who called for a ceasefire and more immediate humanitarian aid.
Safadi called Israel's attacks "blatant aggression," while other colleagues, he said, were talking only about "self-defense." According to him, "war crimes are being committed" and what is happening in Gaza falls within the "legal definition of genocide". For this reason, he criticized that some countries refused to urge a ceasefire.
The diplomatic meeting has been affected by the diplomatic controversy between Spain and Israel these days, but the references to the Israeli accusations of Pedro Sánchez's collaboration with terrorism have been limited. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, explained that the Israeli ambassador in Madrid had been summoned to express a "categorical rejection" of the accusations against Sánchez and to ask for "guarantees" that they will not be repeated. Albares also insisted that the words of the Israeli Government against Sánchez are "unacceptable" and "completely false", and that Ambassador Radian-Gordon will have to "give explanations".
