Spain Spies on the Trips of Mohammed VI

Morocco World News/ Correo Diplomatico

New York, December 20, 2011

The publication of Wikileaks diplomatic cables has not ceased to cast negative light on the discretion and professionalism of various diplomats and politicians across the world. In this particular case, it is Spain’s turn through a few revelations made from a former ambassador of Spain in Rabat, Luis Planas Puchades, to the ex-ambassador of the United States in Morrocco, Thomas Riley.

According to an email, with the code 58606, transmitted from the U.S. embassy in Rabat to the State Department in Washington, D.C, Planas, who now is the highest ranking Spanish diplomat to the European Union, confessed to Riley that Spain was spying on the king of Morocco during his visits to the Sahara.

Riley had transmitted through his diplomatic cable that the former Spanish ambassador at the Moroccan capital had confessed how his country, “studied to the smallest details the movements of the monarch to the Sahara,”

Discomfort with MINURSO

Similarly, on a separate occasion, Planas shared with the U.S. ambassador that Madrid did not appreciate the declarations made by the special representative of the United Nations to Western Sahara in 2008, Dutch diplomat Peter van Walsum. Through his statement, van Walsum advised of a possible withdrawal or downsizing of the forces of the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

It is clear that Riley did his job and informed Washington of Planas’ assertions. However, since then there is no certainty when the cables were leaked between the U.S. embassy in Rabat and the Department of State in Washington D.C. It is also uncertain if the means used were the most appropriate way to communicate with the United States over such sensitive issues.

Translated by Daniela Guerrero and edited by Benjamin Villanti

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