After a year of diplomatic crisis, Spain and Morocco normalized their relations on Friday, March 18, thanks to a gesture of support long demanded by Rabat in Madrid on the highly sensitive issue of Western Sahara.

“Today we are entering a new stage in our relationship with Morocco based on mutual respect, respect for agreements, the absence of unilateral actions and transparency and permanent communication,” the Spanish government wrote in a statement. communicated.

This announcement comes after the release of a press release from the Moroccan Royal Palace reporting a message from the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, indicating that the Moroccan "autonomy" plan for Western Sahara is "the most serious basis, realistic and credible for the resolution of the dispute".

A position that Madrid had never defended before, which has always advocated neutrality between Rabat and the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario.

If the Spanish government does not take up this message in its press release and does not say a word about the Sahara, it implicitly confirms it by emphasizing that this "stage will take place within the framework of a clear and ambitious roadmap as indicated by the press releases from the Government of Morocco".

As part of the normalization of relations between the two countries, a visit by Pedro Sanchez to Morocco, the date of which has not been communicated, is scheduled while the head of Spanish diplomacy, José Manuel Albares, will go to Rabat "before the end of the month", says the press release from the Spanish government.

Madrid 'gave in'

For Ignacio Cembrero, a Spanish journalist specializing in relations between the two countries, "the Spanish government gave in to Morocco's main demand" which asked it to "support its proposal for autonomy" for Western Sahara.

"It's an important change" because "Morocco demands that this be made public" but "the Spanish authorities have always helped Morocco (on this file) in recent years" in discretion, he nuances.

In a statement, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry hailed "Spain's positive positions and constructive commitments regarding the Moroccan Sahara". 

The conflict in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered a "non-autonomous territory" by the UN, has pitted Morocco against the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers, for decades.

Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this territory, proposes an autonomy plan under its sovereignty while the Polisario calls for a self-determination referendum, planned when signing a ceasefire in 1991 but never materialized.

Migration crisis in Ceuta

The major diplomatic quarrel between Madrid and Rabat was caused in April 2021 by the reception in Spain, to be treated there for Covid, of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, sworn enemy of Rabat.

It resulted last May in the massive arrival of migrants of Moroccan origin in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the northern coast of Morocco, taking advantage of a relaxation of border surveillance on the Moroccan side.  

Prior to Friday's announcements, tensions had eased but not ended.

Called back for consultations in May, Morocco's ambassador to Spain has still not returned to Madrid.

According to Bernabé López, professor of Arab and Islamic studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid, this gesture by Madrid on the Sahara is intended in particular to obtain from Rabat a management of migratory flows.

In order "to tighten the screw a little and that there is more control and not this intentional absence of control on the part of Morocco", he judges.

In return for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel, Morocco had obtained from the United States, then led by Donald Trump, recognition of the "Moroccanness" of the former Spanish colony.

Last week, Washington reiterated its support for Rabat, reaffirming that its autonomy plan was "serious and credible".

With AFP

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