Turning the Tide Back Toward Peace in the Middle East

The 2025 United Nations General Assembly opened with a major step toward implementing a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict: recognition of the State of Palestine. Recognition is not merely symbolic. It is a prerequisite to any eventual peace. Spain took this step in May 2024, alongside Ireland, Norway, and Slovenia, and now others – including Australia, Britain, Canada, and Portugal – are following suit.

But there is little to celebrate. The spiral of violence unleashed by the heinous terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, continues unabated. In addition to daily massacres in Gaza and hostages still being held, instability is rising across the Middle East. Israel’s unacceptable bombing of Qatar on September 9 is among the most serious challenges to international law and the United Nations Charter that the international community has seen.

Equally unacceptable is the annihilation of the Palestinian people and their legitimate aspirations to live in peace and security alongside their Israeli neighbors. This week in New York, we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that the latest aggravation of the conflict becomes a turning point. We must start to generate positive dynamics, making this a moment for action and for hope. That means stopping the war and standing up firmly for peace, justice, and dignity.

Since October 2023, Spain has been courageous and decisive in its response. We were very clear from the beginning that this was not just another crisis, and that we must pursue the solution that is widely accepted as the only way forward: two states, side by side. We called for an international conference on the matter, and it is now being held this week in New York. We also called for effective collective action, and this led to the launch of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. And we maintained Euro-Arab dialogue through the Madrid+ Group, a forum to build political momentum for the conference this month.

Spain has also pursued three key objectives at the national level. We have joined the arms embargo to curtail the flow of weapons to Israel. We have imposed sanctions on those who violate human rights, breach international law, and work against implementation of the two-state solution (such as through ongoing settlement activities). And we have maintained our support for the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority (PA), our partner for peace.

This week in New York, we will pursue every possible channel to create the conditions for a sustainable peace. We are also leveraging an important new instrument: the New York Declaration. Endorsed by the General Assembly on September 12, it commits us to taking tangible, time-bound, and irreversible steps toward implementing the two-state solution. Governments will be taking concrete actions to realize the vision of an independent, sovereign, viable, and democratic State of Palestine living in peace and security with Israel.

On the humanitarian front, we are co-chairing, together with Jordan and Brazil, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees ministerial meeting. We will continue to support UNRWA as the agency with the strongest presence on the ground, and as the one most capable of providing humanitarian assistance. At the same time, we will reject any proposal that does not comply with humanitarian principles.

Implementing the two-state solution requires keeping the PA afloat. It is already extremely fragile, since Israel’s withholding of tax revenues has pushed it to the verge of financial collapse. Fortunately, a UN Ad Hoc Liaison Committee will give us the opportunity to work together with major donors and international organizations toward reinvigorating the PA’s viability and institutional capacity. We will even go one step further, using this high-level international gathering to build support for the “Emergency Coalition for Palestine.” Launched together with Saudi Arabia, Norway, and France, this initiative will mobilize additional financial support to shore up the PA’s budget.

While in New York, we will continue to insist that the European Union has the capability, willingness, and responsibility to activate all means at its disposal in the pursuit of peace. Following recent announcements by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, we expect some progress, such as a suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement (in compliance with the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 Advisory Opinion); additional sanctions on Hamas, violent Israeli settlers, and other spoilers of the two-state solution; and firm decisions on EU trade with Israel’s West Bank settlements.

The 2025 UNGA is not a finish line, but rather a point of departure for ultimately achieving a two-state solution. That objective will continue to guide us as we deploy all available political and diplomatic tools, with the new Global Alliance serving as the implementing body of the New York Declaration.

Against the daily catastrophe in Gaza, we can still find hope in what we have achieved over the last year. Many around the world are ready to mobilize for a future of peace. Spain will continue to invest itself in the two-state solution, working at the national, European, and multilateral levels, and availing ourselves of every diplomatic, economic, and security tool available.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2025. www.project-syndicate.org