Madrid/Ankara - Spain, France and Turkey will jointly press for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza at all international forums, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday. Zapatero said he had spoken with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, agreeing the three would seek the involvement of all relevant countries including "friendly Arab countries."
The European Union needed to launch an efficient initiative in the region, Zapatero said at a press conference, stressing the need for an international ceasefire monitoring mechanism.
His comment came while a troika of EU envoys, including top diplomat Javier Solana, is in the region, and Sarkozy is on his way to the same region for talks. The EU group met Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak before travelling on to Jerusalem for talks with the Israeli government.
Zapatero warned Israel that trying to impose security through arms was a "dead end."
The premier criticized both the Palestinian movement Hamas and Israel, saying Spain rejected both "irresponsible and provocative" ruptures of the ceasefire as well as "disproportionate" reactions which violated international law.
The daily El Pais meanwhile said that Zapatero had suspended a visit to Syria and Lebanon to avoid having to make openly anti- Israeli statements.
A spokesman for the prime minister's office said no official date had yet been set for the visit which would take place "in the coming weeks."
In Ankara, Turkey on Monday repeated its call for Israel to halt ground operations immediately in Gaza, with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan once again condemning what he described as a humanitarian tragedy.
"Many civilians, many women, many children have been killed. We condemn the ground operations ... We cannot stand by and watch," Babacan said after talks concerning events in the Israel with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem.
"The first thing that must happen is an immediate end to this humanitarian tragedy," Babacan said.
Babacan indicated that Ankara would be willing to take part in a muted international group to observe any ceasefire, saying Turkey would not "run away" from any request.
The foreign minister also said that in the long term conditions in the Gaza Strip must change.
"For a number of years Gaza has been an open prison ... It must become a normal region," Babacan said.
