The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Jose Manuel Albaresha denied pressure from the Government for Felipe VI to travel to Jordan this weekend and has assured that it was the King’s House that made the decision to maintain the visit despite the escalation of tension in the region.
Zarzuela announced this Wednesday that finally the King would not travel accompanied by Queen Letizia and that the visit, which was going to last until Monday, would be shortened only to Saturday and Sunday given the circumstances in the area, after the missile attack launched on Tuesday by Iran against Israel and the continuous bombings between the Israeli Army and the Lebanese Shiite militia party Hezbollah.
In an interview on TV3, Albares assured this Thursday that the format and duration of the trip, both the current one and the initial one, “has been a decision of the Royal Houseto which The Government has not seen any problem when he has been informed.”
The minister, who will accompany the king on this trip as is usual on his trips abroad, stressed that the visit to Jordan at the invitation of King Abdullah II was planned by the King’s House, “of course in coordination with the Government, for a long time”even before summer.
As things stand, he has denied that the Government is insisting or forcing this trip to take place in the current context. “It is a journey that occurs normally“, he maintained, to specify that the Spanish Embassy in Amman has stated that “there are security conditions” to carry it out.
“All countries that have, like Spain has, a foreign policy with its own identity, based on very clear signs of identity” such as “the search for peace, democracy, respect for Human Rights, advancing diplomacy, they are traveling to the area and they are in contact with the area,” he justified, also emphasizing the added value that contact between the two royal houses has for foreign policy.
