{"id":40639,"date":"2022-05-13T07:17:10","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T07:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=40639"},"modified":"2024-06-08T07:24:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T07:24:49","slug":"why-is-madrid-pandering-to-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/why-is-madrid-pandering-to-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Madrid Pandering to Morocco?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spain has traded five decades of neutrality on Western Sahara while getting nothing but a spyware scandal in return.<\/p>\n

By Marcos Bartolom\u00e9, a Spain-based journalist and researcher.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s foreign policy strives to secure the country\u2019s status as a relevant middle power with a voice in Latin America, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin. In North Africa, however, Madrid is skating on thin ice.<\/p>\n

Matters first turned sour following then-U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s recognition in December 2020 of Moroccan sovereignty over occupied Western Sahara\u2014a former Spanish colony. Spain refused to follow suit and faced months of wrath from the Moroccan monarchy after authorities allowed Brahim Ghali\u2014the leader of the Polisario Front, which resists Moroccan control of the territory\u2014into a Spanish hospital for COVID-19 treatment. Rabat retaliated by recalling its ambassador.<\/p>\n

The 15-month-long row included several spats in which Morocco weaponized thousands of people\u2014including hundreds of its own underage nationals\u2014as diplomatic ammunition. The kingdom repeatedly halted border patrols, letting dozens of migrant boatsreach the Spanish Canary Islands and allowing thousands of fence crossings into the Spanish exclaves Ceuta and Melilla, on Africa\u2019s mainland.<\/p>\n

In mid-2021, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez\u2019s phone was twice hacked by the Israel-developed malware Pegasus; Morocco is the prime suspect, leading to fears Rabat is seeking to blackmail Madrid.<\/p>\n

[\u2026]<\/p>\n

Eventually, S\u00e1nchez caved on the biggest issue of all\u2014fearing the consequences of Rabat\u2019s freeze in immigration deterrence and the economic asphyxia caused by the Moroccan border closures on the frontier with Ceuta and Melilla. In a letter to King Mohammed VI dated March 14, S\u00e1nchez dubbed the 2007 Moroccan proposal of Sahrawi autonomy under Rabat\u2019s control in Western Sahara \u201cthe most serious, credible, and realistic basis\u201d toward resolving the conflict. Four days later, the Moroccan palace leaked the diplomatic missive to the press.<\/p>\n

The tilt toward Morocco undoes half a century of formal Spanish neutrality in the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario. Crucially, the new stance lands Madrid closer to Rabat\u2019s position than either Berlin\u2019s or Paris\u2019s; both Germany and France have acknowledged the autonomy plan as merely \u201ca contribution\u201d but abstained from superlatives. After 10 months, the lights are on again in Morocco\u2019s ambassadorial residence in Madrid. It hasn\u2019t been cost-free.<\/p>\n

Read further: https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2022\/05\/13\/spain-sanchez-morocco-polisario-western-sahara-algeria\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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