SPAIN, ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: PAST AND PRESENT OF THEIR DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

The Spanish diplomatic action in The Middle East conflict has become a long succession of meetings and divergences since the political positions adopted by Franco's regime up to today. This article reviews the most important moments of the relations with The Middle East between 1975 and 2004. The text presents the unconditional support that Franco gave to the Palestinians; how Spain recognized the State of Israel in 1986 and the growing Spanish protagonism thru the 1990's and throughout this century's first decade, with international events that directly relates Spain to the Israeli-Palestinian process: the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference; the Euro-Mediterranean Conference of Barcelona in 1995; the meeting of the Quartet of Madrid, in 2002, where from the Road Map came out and the participation in the Iraq war in 2003, among others.