Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said that the European Union (EU) should rethink its strategic relation with Israel if the European Commission finds that the regime has breached humanitarian law in its savage campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“In the case of the EU, the situation would be that there’s an open door to have a debate within the European Council in order to see if we continue with this strategic relation or not. But this is something for which we first need to have the assessment of the European Commission,” Sanchez told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network on Thursday.
In February, Sanchez and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar asked the EU to urgently review whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligations in the Gaza Strip.
Sanchez reiterated his call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for the international recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state with full membership in the United Nations.
Sanchez said Spain would recognize Palestinian statehood by July and expressed hopes that other Western nations would follow suit.
Ireland, Malta and Slovenia also announced last month they would work toward recognition of a Palestinian state.
Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Bolivia, Bahrain, Belize, Jordan, Turkey, Chad, and South Africa have suspended diplomatic relations with Israel over the campaign of death and destruction in Gaza that has killed nearly 33,000 people since early October.
