The Albany Gazette - Spanish PM, Palestinian leader urge Mideast de-escalation

"Today the risk of escalation is once more increasing in a dangerous way" in Lebanon, Sanchez told a news conference in Madrid after more than an hour of talks with visiting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

"So we must again make a fresh appeal for restraint, for a de-escalation and for peaceful coexistence between countries, in the name of peace," he added.

Abbas also called for a new peace conference in the Spanish capital aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, modelled on the 1991 Madrid talks that led to the 1993 Oslo accords.

Urging a two-state solution, long a cornerstone of international attempts to end the decades-long conflict, Sanchez said a Palestinian nation "living side by side with the state of Israel" was the only way to "bring stability to the region".

Abbas's visit was his first to Spain since Madrid took the decision to recognise a Palestinian state on May 28. Ireland and Norway took the same decision in May.

"Why is this a good thing? Because Palestine exists and has the right to have its own state," Sanchez said.

Abbas expressed his thanks for Sanchez's support and Spain's recognition, urging "all states that have not yet recognised us to do so".

Neither Sanchez nor Abbas referred directly to the explosions of electronic devices that rocked Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday in the latest escalation of tensions.

Israel has not yet commented on the unprecedented wave of attacks in which Hezbollah operatives' pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in supermarkets, on streets and at funerals.

But Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday called on the United Nations to intervene in what he called Israel's "technological war" against it.

Lebanon's Health Minister Firass Abiad said Thursday 37 people had been killed and more than 3,500 wounded in the explosions of the devices over the last two days.

- Palestinian state recognition -

Even before that stunning act of apparent sabotage, tensions were running high in the Middle East, in large part due to the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Since the war began, Sanchez has positioned himself as a champion of the Palestinian cause within the European Union.

His socialist government has increasingly taken highly critical positions towards Israel's conduct of its campaign against Hamas, rival to Abbas's own Fatah party which controls the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

"The international community and Europe cannot remain impassive in the face of the suffering of thousands of innocents, largely women and children," he added.

Israel's military offensive has killed at least 41,272 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to data provided by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The UN has acknowledged these figures as reliable.

Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack which sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Out of 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

(L.Thomas--TAG)