International
What does it mean to recognize a new state?
The announcement of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, that Spain will recognize Palestine as a State on the 28th fulfills a political promise, although it does not clear up some questions about the practical consequences that the mandate will have.
The coalition government of PSOE and Sumar pledged to approve it, in line with the non-legislative proposal agreed in Congress in 2014 by most political groups, including the PP.
The situation in Palestine after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the response of this country’s army in the Gaza Strip, which has caused more than 35,000 deaths, pushed the Sánchez Government to take the definitive step in order to press for a solution to the Middle East conflict.
The step of recognizing a State is a legal act regulated by International Law. It depends exclusively on the Government’s agreement, without the need to have the support of Parliament, although it may ask for it.
It is a unilateral decision and does not depend, in the case of Spain, whether or not it has the approval of the EU, which does not have competence in the area of recognition of States.
Of the 193 members of the United Nations, just over 140 recognize it as a State, which will be joined by Spain, Norway and Ireland on the 28th.
There are eight other EU members who have already taken the step, such as Sweden, Romania or Poland, but they have not made important partners such as Germany, France or Italy.
On April 10, 143 countries asked the UN General Assembly to endorse Palestine as a full-fledged state, but this decision must have the approval of the Security Council and the United States opposes it.
Recognizing a new State requires that there be a defined population, a delimited territory and a government that exercises authority over it. “In the case of Palestine, no assumption is now fulfilled because there are no internationally established borders,” the professor of Public International Law at the UNED, Eduardo Trillo, points out to EFE.
Similarly, Trillo points out, there is no government that has control over the entire Palestinian territory – the West Bank and the Gaza Strip -, since the first is exercised by the Palestinian National Authority (ANP) and in the second, Hamas had it until the war with Israel and is a faction that Spain does not consider an interlocutor.
According to Trillo, it is not something that Spain has to specify, because Palestine lacks defined limits according to international law. Therefore, the UNED professor adds, more than at the legal level, recognition should be interpreted as “a political push to the peace process and a support for the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people.”
Spain can from now on formalize political relations with Palestine and sign international treaties, among other initiatives. So far, Spain has signed a memorandum of understanding of cooperation since 1994 channeling humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and another for the establishment of political consultations since 2012.
It is a discretionary measure of the Government, according to the professor of International Relations at the European University, Beatriz Gutiérrez. Today, it is the Consulate General of Spain, located in Jerusalem, that acts as an “embassy” and channels the relationship with the ANP.
Among the questions, Gutiérrez adds, is whether Spain would take the step of recognizing Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, something it has not done so far.
The ANP has an office in Madrid, which since 2010 has had the rank of diplomatic mission – previously it was a “delegation” – and its premises have inviolability.
The head of the office acts as ambassador in practice and participates in the king’s receptions to the diplomatic corps. On its website, there is talk of “The Embassy of Palestine in Spain.”
The war conflict between Israel and Hamas makes it difficult to give content to the state recognition of Palestine. “Until the war is over, it is difficult to make a perspective of the practical effects. It is too early to see how it will be managed,” says the professor of the European University, who agrees that the measure adopted by Spain should be seen, above all, from “a symbolic rather than a legal point of view.”
South Sudan was the last country that Spain gave its endorsement in 2011, after almost all the citizens of this territory supported the separation of the north from the country in a referendum.
In the 21st century, Spain has recognized two other countries: Montenegro, in 2006, and East Timor, in 2002.
International
China shows at the UN its “condemnation” of Israel for the “violation of Iran’s sovereignty”
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, showed the “condemnation” of his country against the “violation of the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Iran” after the air attack launched by Israel against multiple targets in that country, the official newspaper Diario del Pueblo reports this Saturday.
That media echoes Fu’s speech to the UN Security Council on Friday, in which he demanded that Israel “immediately stop all its military actions.”
“China (…) opposes the expansion of conflicts, and is deeply concerned about the serious consequences that may arise from Israel’s actions. The intensification of regional tensions does not interest any of the parties involved,” said the Chinese emissary.
Beijing called on Tel Aviv and Tehran to “resolve their disputes through political and diplomatic means, and maintain peace and stability at the regional level jointly.”
In Fu’s view, the Israeli attack will have a “negative impact” on the negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program: “China has always been committed to the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and consultations, and opposes the use of force, illegal unilateral sanctions and armed attacks on peaceful nuclear facilities.”
This Friday, China had already expressed its willingness to “play a constructive role” to curb the escalation of tensions and facilitate conciliation, in line with its traditional position of active neutrality in the region’s conflicts.
The Israeli attack, which according to Tehran caused dozens of deaths, including senior military commanders and at least six nuclear scientists, targeted key facilities such as the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Numerous civilian casualties were also reported.
Israel justified the offensive by claiming that the Iranian regime is secretly developing a program to manufacture nuclear weapons.
For his part, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, promised a “severe response” and assured that the attack would reveal the “evil nature” of Israel.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern about the bombing, at a time when Iran and the US The United States is holding talks about the Iranian nuclear program.
International
Donald Trump’s government pauses its program of indiscriminate raides against migrants
The government of US President Donald Trump has decided to pause its campaign of discretionary roundings against migrants in certain areas due to its apparent concern about the growing unpopularity of these methods, according to The New York Times newspaper on Friday.
According to an email to which the newspaper has had access and the confirmation of US officials, the Executive has ordered the Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE) to pause the beatings that affect the agricultural industry and the hospitality industry.
The spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed in a statement that “the president’s instructions” will be obeyed and the portfolio will also continue to “work to get the worst illegal foreign criminals out of the streets of the United States.”
The decision points out that this campaign of discretionary arrests to try to deport large-scale immigrants is harming industries and electoral constituencies whose support Trump wants to retain for next year’s legislative elections.
The new instructions were transmitted to ICE in an email sent last Thursday asking that “all investigations/law enforcement operations be suspended in work centers in the agricultural sector (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants and hotels.”
These new guidelines come in turn after more than a week of intense protests in Los Angeles against this immigration policy and that Trump himself admitted that the raids seem to be affecting the agricultural sector, which in states like California, where beatings have intensified, depend almost exclusively on immigrant labor.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has implemented an aggressive policy of hard hand against immigration and as a sample of his Cabinet officials recently held a meeting with the ICE leadership to order them to carry out 3,000 arrests a day, a mandate that seems to be behind the intensification of the raids.
International
Trump says he knew “everything” about the attack on Iran and assures that the dialogue remains open
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Washington “known everything” about the Israeli attack on Iran and that the dialogue on Tehran’s nuclear program “is not dead.”
“We knew everything and I tried to avoid Iran all this humiliation and death. I tried hard to avoid it because I would have loved to see an agreement,” Trump said in an interview with Reuters.
The US president insisted on what he wrote today about the attack on social networks, where he said he gave an ultimatum of 60 days to Tehran to reach an agreement.
“We knew practically everything. We knew enough to give Iran 60 days to reach an agreement and today it is already 61 days,” he explained in the interview, in which he said he did not know what the current situation of the Iranian nuclear program is after the attack launched by Israel, which also ended the lives of key military leaders of the Persian country.
Regarding the dialogue between the US and Iran about the nuclear program of the ayatollahs, Trump assured that “he is not dead”, that “an agreement is still possible” and also recalled that on Sunday a sixth round of dialogue is scheduled in Muscat (Oman) that they consider is now in the air.
“We have a meeting with them on Sunday. Now, I’m not sure if that meeting will take place, but we have a meeting with them on Sunday,” he said.
The United States and Iran have held five rounds of talks on the Iranian nuclear program since April, with Washington demanding that Tehran discard its capabilities both to manufacture an atomic bomb and to enrich uranium, something that the ayatollahs considered unacceptable.
Both Israel and Trump himself had warned of possible preventive attacks on the Persian country due to this refusal by Iran.
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