Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares agreed this Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan to do everything possible to prevent Israeli military operations in Gaza from extending to Rafah.
“I told the Turkish foreign minister that if military operations were to expand in Rafah, we would face a real humanitarian catastrophe.” and we must all do everything in our power to prevent this,” Albares said at a news conference in Ankara after meeting Fidan.
The head of Spanish diplomacy stressed the need for an “immediate and lasting ceasefire” in Gaza, which must lead to the establishment of a “genuine and viable Palestinian state,” which he saw as the best guarantee of peace for Israel.
“31,000 deaths are more than enough,” explained the minister.
“We cannot allow Palestinians to die not only from bombs but also from hunger,” he stressed.
He explained that Spain, with the support of Turkey, was promoting the idea of convening an international peace conference. “So that we can all recognize the Palestinian state, so that Israel receives the peace guarantees it legitimately needs, and so that this is the last time we see this violence.”
He recalled that there was also a lot of violence in the West Bank, “although not at the same level,” and that Spain had already imposed sanctions on certain groups of Israeli settlers in West Bank settlements.
To be viable, a future Palestinian state should be connected to the Gaza Strip by a corridor and have a seaport, he added.
Albares arrived in Ankara shortly after noon today and met with Fidan p. for just over an hourto talk about the Palestinian conflict, the war in Ukraine and Turkish-Spanish relations.
Tomorrow he will meet with Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek before returning to Madrid.