‘New stage’ for disputed territory
Spain has declared ‘‘a new stage’’ in its strained relations with Morocco after the Spanish prime minister wrote to the Moroccan king, agreeing that having Western Sahara operate autonomously under Rabat’s rule is ‘‘the most serious, realistic and credible’’ initiative for resolving a decades-long dispute over the vast African territory.
This marks an enormous departure from Spain’s earlier stance of considering Morocco’s grip on Western Sahara an occupation. The shift follows months of frosty diplomatic relations.
The United Nations has regarded Madrid as the colonial administrative power for Western Sahara, after its annexation by Morocco immediately after Spain abandoned the African province in 1975.
Over the years, the Spanish government’s official position, along with the European Union’s, has been to support a UNsponsored referendum to settle the territory’s decolonisation.
But according to a statement issued by Morocco’s royal palace yesterday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez recognised ‘‘the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco’’ in a letter to King Mohammed VI.
‘‘Spain considers the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco in 2007 as the basis, the most serious, realistic and credible, for resolving the dispute,’’ the royal palace quoted Sanchez as saying.
Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the announcement. ‘‘Today we begin a new stage in our relations with Morocco and finally close a crisis with a strategic partner,’’ he said.
Relations between Spain and Morocco hit a historic low last year after Spain secretly hosted for medical treatment the leader of the Polisario Front, which has led the yearning for independence by many Sahrawis.
When media affiliated with the Moroccan government revealed Brahim Ghali’s presence in Spain, Rabat allowed 10,000 people to cross the border into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the coast of North Africa, unleashing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Morocco also recalled its ambassador in Madrid.
Abdulah Arabi, who represents the Polisario Front in Spain, said Sanchez had succumbed ‘‘to the pressure and blackmail’’ from Morocco by paying ‘‘a toll’’ to mend the damaged political and diplomatic ties. He said Western Sahara being autonomous under Morocco was only one of many options that should be voted on in a referendum. ‘‘The solution has to be based on the choice voted by the Sahrawi people.’’
Some 176,000 Sahrawis are believed to live in five refugee camps in a sweltering desert in neighbouring Algeria. They rely on humanitarian aid from international agencies, under the governance of the Polisario
Front, which presides over an exiled Sahrawi republic.
In late 2020, their frustration over three decades in limbo led to the end of a ceasefire and new hostilities between Polisario forces and the Moroccan army.
In 2007, Morocco departed from the agreement to hold a referendum for Western Sahara, introducing a proposal of greater autonomy under its sovereignty.
Using its leverage in keeping extremism in North Africa at bay and controlling the flow of African migrants to the EU, Rabat has increasingly scored support for its proposal. First it was backed by France, then in 2019 by the United States, and more recently by Germany.
Western Sahara sits on vast phosphate deposits, and faces rich fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean. Thousands of Sahrawis live in the Moroccancontrolled areas, where authorities keep a tight grip on dissent, according to human rights groups.