Spain, Morocco strive to mend ties after rift

RABAT, Morocco — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez traveled to Rabat to meet with Moroccan King Mohammed VI seeking to mark the end of diplomatic tensions centered on Morocco’s disputed region of Western Sahara.

“Today is an important day for Spain and Morocco because we initiate a new phase of bilateral relations,” Sanchez said Thursday after meeting with the King before they shared, along with family members, the Iftar meal to break the day’s fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Relations between the two countries separated by the Strait of Gibraltar were severely frayed last April. Morocco was angered by Spain allowing the leader of the pro-independence movement for Western Sahara to receive medical treatment for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital on request by Morocco’s neighbor Algeria, an ally of proindependence Sahrawis.

Morocco responded by loosening its border controls around Spain’s North Africa enclave of Ceuta, provoking the unauthorized crossing of thousands of young Moroccans and migrants from other African countries.

The mood did not improve until last month, when Sanchez took the surprising decision that angered many of his political allies back home to alter Spain’s long-standing position on Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that’s largely barren but rich in phosphates and faces fertile fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean. Morocco annexed it in 1976.

In a letter to King Mohammed, Sanchez backed Morocco’s plan to give more autonomy to Western Sahara as long as it remains unquestionably under Moroccan grip.

Morocco, in turn, sent back its ambassador to Spain 10 months after she was recalled.

After their meeting, King Mohammed’s Royal Office issued a statement saying Sanchez “reaffirmed the position of Spain on the Sahara issue, considering the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving the dispute.”

Morocco has grown in strategic importance to Spain over the past decade. Rabat is considered critical both in the fight against radical jihadi groups as well as in holding back increasing numbers of African migrants who want to reach Europe as they flee violence and poverty.

Sanchez and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Albares have insisted that Spain continues to support the resolution of the Western Sahara question via a United Nations-backed referendum.