Spanish PM proposes talks on establishment of Palestinian state

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Sanchez, whose new government was sworn in earlier this month, proposed an international peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during talks with Netanyahu on November 23, according to Al Jazeera.

The Socialist leader also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog and was set for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank later on November 23 before travelling on to Egypt.

“Today, more than ever, we need to bring back a serious and credible prospect for peace,” Sanchez said after talks with Netanyahu. “Without a political settlement, we are bound to run again into a never-ending cycle of violence.”

While Sanchez stressed that he backed Israel’s right to defend itself following the “atrocities” carried out by Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, on October 7, he said the number of Palestinians killed in Israel’s military response “is truly unbearable”.

Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Hamas fighters from Gaza attacked southern Israel, according to Israeli authorities, and around 240 others were taken as captives to Gaza.

Since the attack, Israel has bombarded Gaza in an air and ground assault and severely restricted supplies of water, food and fuel to the 2.3 million residents of the territory. More than 14,500 people, including more than 6,000 children, have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities.

The last US-brokered round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014 and the prospects of a revival appear to have dimmed amid the continuing Israel-Hamas war.

Sanchez said he and unspecified colleagues had proposed holding an international peace conference with the parties as soon as possible. He said the European Union, Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had all endorsed the idea.

“It is in Israel’s interest to work for peace, and today, peace means the establishment of a viable Palestinian state that includes the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, according to the UN resolutions,” he said.

United States officials have said the time is not right to try to resume peace talks given the protracted intransigence of both sides.

Sanchez attended the meetings alongside his Belgian counterpart, Alexander De Croo. Their two countries hold the current and upcoming rotating presidencies of the Council of the European Union, respectively.

Last week, Sanchez said a Union for the Mediterranean summit in Barcelona on November 27-28 would be an “ideal place” to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian dialogue as the two sides would “sit on an equal footing” there.

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs limited parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, are members of the Mediterranean grouping along with neighbours Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria.