Spain proposes more sanctions against Israel at a meeting with around twenty countries in Madrid.

MadridCoinciding with the first anniversary of the recognition of Palestine, Spain hosted a meeting this Sunday of the so-called Madrid Group, a group of European, Arab, and Muslim countries that support a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. This time, however, the meeting was called Madrid+, because some twenty countries that have not gone that far participated, along with special guests such as Brazil. At the start of the meeting, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced a proposal to extend the list of individual sanctions against Israel and also within the European Union "against those who want to make the two-state solution unviable." He also stressed that Brussels should suspend the association agreement with the state led by Benjamin Netanyahu this week. The EU has opened up to studying it– and has called for all countries to declare an arms embargo against Israel. In Spain, the Congress of Deputies has begun processing a law to make this possible, although from the same The Spanish government has cooled the initiative.

"Nothing we are going to say goes against the State of Israel. We take note of the Israeli people's demands for security and peace, but the Palestinian people have the same right. They do not have to be condemned to remain a refugee nation forever," Albares stressed in his pre-summit address. No binding decisions will be made at this meeting, and the Foreign Minister emphasized that some of these initiatives will have to be conveyed to the EU, where alarm bells were raised this week by the intensification of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, where the lives of thousands of babies are at risk. lack of humanitarian aid, and also for the Israeli attack on a diplomatic delegation in the West Bank. "We don't rule out any [sanctions]," Albares noted, when asked about the possibility of including Netanyahu. "Let the list of individual sanctions include all those who do not believe in the two-state solution and make it impossible. That's why Spain has a list of thirteen violent settlers," he added. Regarding humanitarian aid, he defended that the UN is in control and that Israel cannot impose restrictions..

The Spanish Foreign Minister also made it clear that all countries should recognize the Palestinian state, although he admitted that "each state is sovereign" and that he will not "teach anyone a lesson." However, he hoped that the high-level conference, which will take place on June 18 in New York with the support of the United Nations, will become "a major movement" toward a two-state solution. The countries participating in Madrid+ this Sunday are: Germany, Slovenia, France, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, and Brazil, in addition to the European Union, the Islamic World Cup, and the Arab League.