Spain’s policy towards Morocco should take shape better following the migratory events recorded in the Sebta enclave. While Madrid had ignored calls from Rabat to explain the reasons for welcoming separatist Brahim Ghali and downplaying the consequences, Spanish government officials showed sudden energy and keen attention to Sebta.
If Morocco waits for Spain to free itself from its double game and its double talk and to adopt a clear, more honest position in the Sahara affair, an old conflict which must be resolved, the Spain continues to have it both ways by secretly maintaining relations with Algeria, by supporting the separatist movement of the Polisario, in particular by providing it with satellite data and by trying to maintain its interests with Morocco.
This unfair and unworthy attitude of a country which presents itself as a friend and a partner, was one day or another to provoke a reaction from Morocco which, until now has been armed with patience and has put too much water in his wine. And it was done!
Since the events linked to the migration crisis in Sebta, the occupied enclave, recorded on Monday, the Spanish press is unanimous in saying that this crisis could have been avoided if Spanish diplomacy was more honest in its approach and had respected Morocco .
Indeed, the Spanish media accused the government of Pedro Sanchez of having accumulated diplomatic blunders with its neighbor and ally, Morocco, on several occasions, and were not surprised that these actions had consequences.
For some media, this latest episode of migration to the other side of the border is the result of the incompetence ”of the Department of Foreign Affairs which minimized the impact on relations with the Kingdom of Morocco following the reception. of the leader of the Sahrawi separatists in Spain.
Morocco had issued two official statements to protest and demand honest and logical answers justifying the entry of Brahim Ghali – sought by Spanish justice – with an Algerian diplomatic passport, a false Algerian name.
“The Spanish officials have multiplied the declarations attempting to justify this serious act and contrary to the spirit of partnership and good neighborliness”, indicated the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking of the affair of the reception of the head of the militias of the Polisario that the Spanish officials have justified by invoking strictly humanitarian reasons.
In its press release dating from the beginning of May, Rabat recalled that the fact of not advising Morocco and of organizing this operation illegally is a “premeditated act, of a voluntary choice and a sovereign decision of the Spain ”.
And to warn that Morocco takes “full note” of it, and that it “will draw all the consequences”.
For some voices in Spain, including that of the opposition, incompetence is not only linked to Foreign Affairs in Spain, but the entire government is targeted by accusations of miscommunication and non-decision making. strategic for the country.
Indeed, the Spanish press has just revealed that the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was strongly opposed to the reception of Brahim Ghali in Spain and had alerted his government of the consequences that such a decision would have. in relations with the Moroccan ally.
However, the head of diplomacy, Arancha Gonzales Laya, nevertheless took the plunge, supported by the head of the Spanish government Pedro Sanchez, sacrificing the precious relations with Rabat in the process. While she had played the card of the stability of relations with Morocco at the beginning, today it is the headlong rush that the minister is adopting.
If the migratory crisis in Sebta is more or less resolved, the diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Madrid should take place over time. Spain, which has created a crisis unit at the Ministry of the Interior to coordinate its response and its next steps, will not get out of this case unscathed as long as there is still a Brahim Ghali protected by Madrid and justice, and as long as it has not clarified its position on its former colony and as long as there are borders with Morocco.
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