"title"=>"Spain to recognize Palestinian statehood by July",
"summary"=>"Foreign Minister Albares argued the move was needed to ensure peace in the region and guarantee Israel's security.",
"content"=>"\n
BRUSSELS — Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares confirmed on Wednesday that Madrid will recognize the State of Palestine before July.
\n\n\n\n“We need a real Palestinian state,” Albares said at a meeting with journalists in Brussels. “The Palestinian people must not be condemned to forever be refugees.”
\n\n\n\nSpain’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution in favor of recognizing Palestinian statehood in 2014, but both center-right then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and his successor, Socialist Party leader Pedro Sánchez, maintained that official recognition should only happen in concert with the rest of the European Union.
\n\n\n\nAlbares said the change in Spain’s position was directly linked to the high number of civilian casualties since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the launch of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, as well as to the lack of progress in securing peace by other methods. He added that recognizing Palestinian statehood was key to ending the conflict in the region.
\n\n\n\n“We feel the same solidarity for the 32,000 Palestinians who have been killed as we do for the 1,200 Israelis,” he said. “This recognition takes Israel into the equation: The recognition of the Palestinian state is the best guarantee of security for Israel.”
\n\n\n\nDuring an informal meeting on Monday with journalists accompanying him on a tour of the Middle East, Sánchez suggested Spain could recognize Palestine before the summer. The Spanish PM has been one of the most forceful critics within the EU of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and on Tuesday demanded explanations from Israeli authorities following the deaths of seven people working for Spanish celebrity chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen in an airstrike in the Palestinian enclave.
\n\n\n\nIn a joint statement released after last month’s European Council summit in Brussels, the heads of government of Spain, Ireland, Malta and Slovenia announced their readiness to extend recognition “for the sake of peace and security” in the region “when the time is right.”
\n\n\n\nNine of the EU’s 27 members currently recognize the right of Palestinians to a state, but the majority did so prior to joining the bloc and within a 1988 effort among then-Communist and non-aligned countries.
\n\n\n\nOnly Sweden, which extended recognition in 2014, has done so as an EU member.
\n","author"=>"Aitor Hernández-Morales",
"link"=>"https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-recognize-palestine-state-statehood-by-july-2024-foreign-minister-jose-manuel-albares/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication",
"published_date"=>Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:42:43.000000000 UTC +00:00,
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"feed_url"=>"https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-recognize-palestine-state-statehood-by-july-2024-foreign-minister-jose-manuel-albares/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication",
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"created_at"=>Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:58:04.275122000 UTC +00:00,
"updated_at"=>Tue, 14 May 2024 05:10:12.292081000 UTC +00:00,
"newspaper"=>"Politico EU",
"macro_region"=>"Europe"}