The Moncloa did not report that Biden and Sánchez spoke about Operation Guardian of Prosperity in the Red Sea and the hesitant Spanish position

2023-12-23 17:45:19

The Government reported yesterday on the conversation that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, had with his American counterpart, Joe Biden, but avoided mentioning that both leaders addressed the attacks by the Yemeni Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, as they did. in its statement from the White House.

According to reports from La Moncloa, Pedro Sánchez had a telephone conversation with Joe Biden, in which he addressed the “dramatic” situation in Gaza and conveyed his willingness to seek “a political solution” to achieve two states.

“We have addressed the dramatic situation in Gaza and I have conveyed my willingness to seek a political solution that enables the coexistence of a State of Palestine and the State of Israel in peace and security,” Sánchez wrote in a message published on his social networks.

Aside from this issue, according to the Executive, they have analyzed “how to continue strengthening their bilateral cooperation” in matters such as the management of migratory flows through legal channels, and agreed that it is necessary to maintain transatlantic unity, “especially in the face of Russian aggression.” against Ukraine”.

In another vein, the President of the Spanish Government also revealed that Biden congratulated him on his inauguration and he reiterated his willingness to continue strengthening cooperation with the United States during this new term.

On the contrary, Moncloa avoided mentioning that both leaders “highlighted the importance of guaranteeing that the conflict (in Gaza) does not expand in the region, to include the condemnation of the continuous Houthi attacks against commercial ships in the Red Sea,” as it did. the White House stated in its statement.

Operation “Guardian of Prosperity”

The omission occurred at a time when Spain would have backed down on its participation in Operation ‘Guardian of Prosperity’, after last Monday, the US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, announced in a statement that Spain would be together with the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Seychelles in an alliance to jointly address security challenges in the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The Government surprised shortly afterwards by assuring through the Ministry of Defense, and the spokesperson Pilar Alegría, that in no case would it participate unilaterally, and would only do so within the framework of NATO and the EU.

However, at first Spain supported the cooperation of the EU’s Operation ‘Atalanta’ with the ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ in an emergency Political and Security committee convened by High Representative Josep Borrell, but the next day, at the Commission meeting, blocked the decision by surprise.

The changes in the Executive’s criteria reached the point that Vice Admiral Ignacio Villanueva Serrano, commander of the ‘Atalanta’ mission, deleted a message on his social networks in which he had stated that “in response to the firm cohesion of the Member States of the EU, Eunavfor Atalanta has already started cooperating with Operation ‘Guardian of Prosperity’ in the southern Red Sea, and hopes to provide even more support, through concrete support and the employment of appropriate capabilities.”