Spain and Portugal urge urgent Middle East peace conference

Spain and Portugal have called for an international peace conference "as soon as possible" to find a two-state solution in the Middle East.

The foreign and defense ministers of the two countries on Monday gathered in Madrid ahead of the Spain-Portugal 35th Intergovernmental Summit that will be held in Faro, Portugal on Wednesday.

In an official joint statement released after the meeting, the two countries voiced the need for an international peace conference "as soon as possible" to find a two-state solution in the Middle East.

Spain and Portugal stressed that the two-state solution was the only solution to the issue, and urged for "concrete and irreversible steps" toward that goal.

They also reiterated their concern over Israel's attacks in Lebanon and on the UN peacekeeping mission there, known as UNIFIL.

Israel dramatically escalated its massive bombing campaign across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing more than 1,500 people, injuring over 4,500 others, and displacing more than 1 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed at least 42,600 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Middle East was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel's relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, on Oct. 1, it expanded the conflict by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.