Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – The Moroccan government today celebrated Spain’s positive declaration of support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan, confirming it to be the most serious and credible solution to resolving the Western Sahara conflict.
Today, Spain officially recognized Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most serious and viable solution to ending the decades-long conflict over Western Sahara.
The European country also emphasized the importance of its bilateral relationship with Morocco, expressing certainty the Spanish and Moroccan governments both share a strong desire to build “a new relationship, based on transparency that corresponds to a great friend and ally.”
“I assure you that Spain will always keep its commitments and its word,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in a letter to King Mohammed VI.
Although unexpected, the Sanchez government’s recent attempts to repair relations signal clearly that Spain would like to move past the recent deterioration of diplomatic relations between Rabat and Madrid.
Commenting on Spain’s decision, foreign policy analyst Samir Bennis said in a series of tweets that Spain’s declaration reflects Morocco’s strengthened diplomatic policy in recent years.
It is also the fruit of Morocco’s “patience and belief in its just cause, which enjoys the support of all the components of the Moroccan people, who sacrificed dearly and preciously in order to preserve Morocco’s territorial integrity,” he argued.
Morocco and Spain’s relationship fell into an unprecedented diplomatic crisis in 2021, after the European country decided to shelter separatist leader of the Polisario Front Brahim Ghali for hospitalization in April 2021.
Ghali landed in Spain in secrecy, but within a few days Morocco’s intelligence learned of the Polisario leader’s arrival in the European country.
Spain’s actions greatly angered Rabat, who said that the move undermined Morocco’s trust in its long-term strategic ally.
Since then, the Spanish government has made several attempts to restore normality and positive diplomatic ties between the two countries.
Spain’s recognition of Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most credible solution to the Western Sahara conflict, reveals that the European country has stopped relying on Algerian gas, creating alternatives to “free itself from Algeria’s pressures,” according to Bennis.
Spain’s supportive position regarding Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara is also taking into account common interests that the European country shares with Morocco
The analyst continued to add that Spain had “failed to take this step earlier due to its heavy dependence on Algerian gas.”
“Algeria is paying for its hatred and ingratitude towards Morocco,” he said, recalling the Algerian’ regime’s refusal to renew the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline contract.
The contract for the pipeline, which had been supplying Spain with gas through Morocco, expired in October 2021.
The decision to suspend the contract came a few months after Algeria’s unilateral decision to cut diplomatic relations with Morocco.
“When the Algerian regime decided to end the gas pipeline linking to Spain through Morocco, it thought that this announcement would weaken Morocco, pushing Spain to side with Algeria’s positions,” Bennis argued.
Following Spain’s energy crisis related to Algeria’s decision to halt the pipeline contract, the Spanish government found out that the Algerian government is not a “credible” partner that can be counted on.
Algeria, the analyst added, is ruled by a “leadership consisting of a group of generals who have no principles” and who do not respect their country’s commitments.
The analyst recalled that Spanish imports of Algeria’s gas account for 23% instead of over 40%.
Spain will turn to Qatari and US markets to import its gas needs, he argued
Algeria has long challenged Morocco’s positions, particularly its territorial integrity and sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The Algerian regime shelters, hosts, finances, and arms the Polisario Front, a separatist group claiming independence for Western Sahara.
Eventful Week
Oualid Kebir, Algerian journalist and political analyst, echoed Bennis’ analysis, saying that this week has been an “eventful one for Morocco’s diplomacy.”
He recalled that the funds directed to Morocco are briefly mentioned under titles III and IV of the latest US spending bill.
The funds appropriated under title III used to be reserved for US funding to “Western Sahara,” Morocco’s southern provinces.
The analyst told MWN that the Spanish announcement is “momentous,” and “huge victory” for Morocco’s diplomacy.
“It is, on the other hand, a setback for both the Polisario Front and Algeria’s militarized regime,” he argued.
The decision will have a very positive impact on Moroccan-Spanish diplomatic relations, an effect that would be enough to restore normalcy to Rabat-Madrid ties, Kebir concluded.
Appreciating Spain’s positive position, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the move as “constructive commitments on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.”
The ministry stressed that Sanchez’ message to King Mohammed VI is a “clear and ambitious roadmap” to improve and advance bilateral diplomatic ties between the two countries.
