Spain Calls for Peace Conference in Madrid

Spanish Foreign Minister José Albares has called for a joint Arab-European initiative to hold an international peace conference in the Middle East, to be hosted in Madrid.

The conference aims to bring together leaders from both sides to recognize the state of Palestine and grant it full membership in the United Nations.

Albares made this appeal during a speech at the Arab League Council at the level of permanent represen

tatives, in the presence of the Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

He advocated for the establishment of a Palestinian state that ensures its protection and the launch of an Arab-European initiative to achieve lasting peace.

Albares announced that this Spanish vision would be presented at the European summit in March, expressing hope that the upcoming Arab summit in Bahrain in May would follow the European side's lead in this matter.

"The time has come to launch a joint European-Arab initiative to hold an international peace conference in Spain as soon as possible to recognize the Palestinian state," Albares stated.

Meanwhile, Cairo received some American ideas and visions that could contribute to reaching a humanitarian truce agreement for six weeks.

During this period, a prisoner exchange deal between the Palestinian factions in Gaza and the Israeli side could be accomplished, according to a well-informed source for Al-Ittihad.

The source mentioned that the Palestinian factions are insisting on their stance of refusing a temporary truce and demand a complete and comprehensive ceasefire to proceed with a prisoner exchange deal increase the number of trucks carrying humanitarian aid and accelerate their entry into Gaza.

The source clarified that the American side sees the new vision of reaching a humanitarian truce in Gaza as a significant driver to end the war in the coming period, emphasizing that Washington is against putting more pressure on the Israeli government at this time and seeks to convince it of the need to avoid launching a military operation in Palestinian Rafah in the upcoming weeks.

In another context, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has tasked economic advisor Mohammed Mustafa with forming the 19th government, as reported by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).