From the other shore, the diplomatic tension with neighboring Spain looks different. The massive entry of migrants and refugees into Ceuta and the political scuffle these days occupy a preferential place in the media of our southern neighbor. “Morocco and Spain are going through an open crisis that the Iberian leaders have chosen to aggravate, chaining blunders, at least unfriendly, false pretexts and ambiguities”, summarizes the official Moroccan news agency Map in a decalogue that includes the hottest points of the conflict bilateral.
On Wednesday the director of Map, Khalil Hachimi Idrissi, had come down with a platform in which he accused Spain of “treason” and described as “schizophrenia” the fact that the Pedro Sánchez government spoke of the territorial integrity of Spain when it is about Ceuta but it does not recognize the territorial integrity of the Alaouite kingdom “and its sovereignty over the southern provinces”, in reference to Western Sahara. Virtually all the country's media echoed the opinion of Hachimi Idrissi, who broke three days of silence from the official agency in the midst of the human tide launched on Ceuta from the other side of the border.
On May 18, when asked by the weekly 'TelQuel' about Map's silence while 8,000 young people and adolescents crossed the Tarajal border post in less than 24 hours, the director of the official North African news agency stated that he would not disseminate information until “the Government would have established its position”. The Moroccan Executive had not published an official statement explaining its decision, on Tuesday, to call its ambassador in Madrid, Karima Benyaich, for consultations, in the midst of the migration crisis. Yesterday, the Foreign Minister, Naser Burita, made an appearance in which he specified that the ambassador will not return while the crisis lasts.
On Wednesday, the person in charge of Map published his forum “A small lesson”. “The distressing thing about the Moroccan-Spanish crisis is that the Spanish clumsily claim to be victims of a situation for which they are not responsible.. Ridiculous!” he wrote.. “The poor government of Pedro Sánchez rushes directly to the wall by sounding the horn,” he added.
The silence broken, the official agency continued on Thursday with its media offensive and published a decalogue in which it argues “the reasons for the crisis” Spanish-Maghrebi. The first of the elements is the reception in a Spanish hospital of the “head of the Polisario separatist militias, Brahim Ghali”, to whom he attributes “war crimes, acts of terrorism and torture”.. Two lawsuits have been admitted for processing in Spain in which Ghali appears as being investigated, although the National Court has not imposed precautionary measures against the Saharawi president.
The fact that Spain did not inform Rabat of the entry into its territory of the Polisario leader to be officially treated for Covid-19 is a grievance for Morocco, which considers it “a hard blow to good neighborly relations and friendship” that also “attends against strategic alliance and multidimensional cooperation”.
On the list is also the Spanish position on Western Sahara. After Donald Trump's tweet recognizing Morocco's sovereignty over the former Spanish colony on December 10, in exchange for establishing relations with Israel, Rabat hoped that other countries would follow Washington.. but this has not happened. Spain reiterated on Wednesday that it will not change its position, “firmly anchored in a political solution” within the framework of the United Nations, as warned by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya.
“The US recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara has put certain partners of the kingdom in a difficult position called to make a decision, to make an examination of conscience and to go in the direction of history,” the agency notes. Moroccan news officer. “Morocco has the right to demand that its partners clarify their positions. This is not a time for ambiguities, ambivalence and double play,” he says.
Little by little, the official voices of the North African country have been making themselves heard in the press. The online medium 'Le360', close to the royal house, cited on Thursday a “senior person in charge of Moroccan diplomacy” -whom he did not identify- who claims that “Morocco expects acts from Spain” that go beyond “patting on the back” to overcome the current bilateral disagreement.
More specifically, it specifies that it is not a migratory crisis, referring to the massive entry of thousands of people into Ceuta since Monday, but rather that the diplomatic conflict has to do with Ghali's hospitalization in Spain. “The crisis between Morocco and Spain has the name of Brahim Ghali and not Ceuta,” he says. And he adds that his country is waiting to receive explanations and justifications from Madrid. “Morocco does not act out of emotion, but on the basis of tangible facts that crudely test the strategic partnership between the two countries,” he warns.
But even if it is not a migration crisis, Rabat is not willing to “receive lessons” on these issues either.. This is made clear in another article published on the same website, which assures that the Maghreb country “has not ceased to deploy significant efforts to strengthen the control of its borders and fight against illegal immigration and human smuggling and trafficking networks”. The text profiles Morocco as “a model for the region” in migratory matters, although it does not mention what happened these days at the border with Ceuta, where thousands of minors were thrown towards the border.