A statement by Speaker of the House of Councilors Ennam Mayara about Sebta and Melilla at a party event made the rounds in the Spanish press. Yet the Saharawi politician is not the first to have this kind of position.
Invited by the Istiqlal women’s organization, this weekend, to speak about relations between Morocco and Spain after a year of reconciliation between the two countries and the adoption of a new leaf on the way, Mayara stopped on the subject of Sebta and Melilla, the two cities occupied by Spain in the north of Morocco.
The politician recalled the Moroccan character of the two mainland cities and pleaded “to put an end to colonization” by activating a political solution “negotiated, without resorting to arms”, reported the Spanish news agency EFE.
These words made the rounds of the Spanish press and spread like wildfire even though they are not new or out of the ordinary. Most Moroccan politicians have already positioned themselves on this subject, which is unanimous among Moroccans.
Even the former head of government, Saad Dine El Otmani, said so when he was in office, saying that the status quo prevailing in the two occupied cities could not remain a fait accompli and underlined the identity of these two cities in the same way as the Sahara.
If the words of Mayara, who warned that the two cities “will not be blackmailed”, echoed so much in the Iberian press this weekend, it is above all because Spanish professional associations operating in Sebta and Melilla, are pushing to activate customs with Morocco, so as to reinforce their “Spanish” character.
Political parties in the same wake have called for a revision of the Treaty of Good Neighbourhood, Friendship and Cooperation signed in 1991. Prior to this, the far-right opposition party Vox had tried unsuccessfully to a bill obliging Morocco to recognize the Spanish character of the two cities.
For his part, Ennam Mayara, called on Moroccans living in Spain to join political parties in order to “bring the positions between the two countries closer and thus form a lobby to help defend all causes related to the homeland, Morocco. says Efe.