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Spain has once again crushed the Polisario Front’s illegitimate claims over Western Sahara, describing the separatist group’s recent fisheries offer as “not important.”
Last week, the Polisario Front said it had been working on a “legal framework” to allow Spanish vessel owners access to carry out fishing activities off Morocco’s southern provinces in the Western Sahara region.
“We are willing to find a legal framework so that they can continue their activity. They are victims of an illegal agreement between Morocco and the European Union,” the so-called general delegate of the Polisario in Spain told the news website El Independiente.
The separatist group’s claims come as the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement is due to expire on July 17.
In response to Polisario’s claims, Spain Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said he “does not give importance to [Polisario] offer,” stressing that any agreement for fishing off southern Moroccan coasts should be between Morocco and the EU.
He also stressed that there has been talks in recent days with his Moroccan counterpart Mohamed Sadiki, stressing that both parties agreed that they will ask the EU commission to continue with Morocco the evaluation of the agreement so that the negotiations resume as soon as possible.
The minister’s remarks come amid frustration from Polisario and its lifetime supporter Algeria, which has in recent months repeatedly expressed its dismay and frustration with Spain’s decision to endorse Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible solution to end the dispute over Western Sahara.
When Spain announced in March of last year its decision to support Morocco’s Autonomy Plan, Algeria reacted by recalling its ambassador from Madrid and freezing a twenty-year friendship treaty.
Read also: Spanish FM Warns of Opposition Party’s Embrace of ‘Anti-Moroccan Positions’
But Spain’s government has continued to dismiss Algeria and some Spanish figures’ pro-Polisario activism, defending its decision to increase cooperation with Morocco amid the newfound Spanish-Moroccan determination to “open a new page” in bilateral relations.
Just this past Monday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stressed the importance of cooperation with Morocco in an article published on Monday in the magazine Politica Exterior.
In the article, Sanchez said that Spain has, within the framework of its foreign policy, “strong ties with Morocco at all levels but above all the human ties woven by our citizens as well as by our companies.”
