SPAIN - MOROCCO

Morocco recalls ambassador to Spain enclaves

Friday, November 2, 2007

Morocco recalled its ambassador to Spain on Friday to show its irritation at plans by King Juan Carlos to visit Spain's two north African enclaves, which Morocco claims as its own.

RABAT, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Morocco recalled its ambassador to
Spain on Friday to show its irritation at plans by King Juan
Carlos to visit Spain's two north African enclaves, which
Morocco claims as its own.
 

Spain said the king would make his first visit as head of
state to the small, densely populated cities of Ceuta and
Melilla on Morocco's Mediterranean coast next Monday and
Tuesday, accompanied by Queen Sofia.
 

High-level Spanish trips to Ceuta and Melilla are rare and a
visit by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2006,
the first by a Spanish head of government since 1981, raised
hackles in Morocco.
 

After Spain's announcement, "it has been decided on the high
instruction of his majesty King Mohammed VI ... the recall for
consultation of Mr. Omar Azziman, his Majesty's ambassador in
Spain for an indeterminate period," Moroccan state news agency
MAP said.
 

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la
Vega defended the royal visit, saying it was in response to
requests by residents. She noted that Morocco and Spain were
allies and friends.
 

"Relations with the kingdom of Morocco are extraordinarily
good ... based on sincere affection and mutual respect," she
told a weekly government news briefing.
 

Spanish-Moroccan relations have improved since Zapatero came
to power and aligned his foreign policy closer to that of
staunch Moroccan ally France.
 

A low point was reached in 2002 under his predecessor Jose
Maria Aznar, when Morocco sent troops to the tiny disputed
island of Perejil and Spain sent special forces to oust them.
 


 

"PROFOUND REGRET"
 

Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi voiced surprise and
"profound regret" at the royal visit, which he first heard about
in the Spanish press, MAP said.
 

"The government ... recalls that these two towns are an
integral part of the territory of the Kingdom of Morocco and
their return to the mother nation will come from direct
negotiations between the Spanish neighbour," MAP quoted El
Fassi's office as saying.
 

El Fassi became prime minister in September after his
conservative Istiqlal (Independence) party won the most seats in
parliamentary elections.
 

The party has a nationalist agenda and staunchly defends
Morocco's "territorial integrity" including its claim over
Spain's former colony of Western Sahara and over the two
enclaves, which Morocco calls Sebta and Mellilia.
 

News of the trip has caused excitement in the two cities
where roads are expected to close, shops to shut and government
offices to open only for two hours.
 

Children are unlikely to attend school so they can line the
route of the Spanish monarch.
 

Spain took Melilla at the end of the 15th century and took
over Ceuta from Portugal in the 17th century.
 

The enclaves now have a lucrative sideline in contraband
consumer goods smuggled into Morocco, while high barbed-wire
fences attempt to stop illegal migrants coming the other way.
 

Ceuta and Melilla have been recognised as autonomous cities
since 1995, a status that gives them less power over their own
affairs than the autonomous regions of peninsular Spain.
 (Additional reporting by Inmaculada Sanz in Madrid and Pablo
Mates in Ceuta)



 

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