Spain intends to “Europeanize” the crisis caused with Morocco
There was no much-announced bilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and the head of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez. It was all limited to a stroll in the corridors of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. "Ridiculous frightful", "embarrassment", "international irrelevance", reported the newspaper La Vanguardia.
As a "fiasco", El País described it, because there was neither agenda nor content since the socialist leader was not on the US president's agenda this Monday.
"Biden has no reason to dedicate more than 29 seconds to Spain," titled El Confidencial. From now on, he added, "any elevator or toilet conversation that takes place in the NATO building could be defined as a 'state summit'."
“Indifference and disinterest on the one hand. Nervousness and insistence, on the other. The coldness and distance have marked the behavior of the president of the United States, while the desire to capture the attention of his interlocutor sums up Sánchez's performance, "said ABC. "The case shows that the role of Spain is very secondary to the diplomacy of the United States," said the newspaper.
“The communist and anti-establishment partners of the Spanish government are not to the liking of the United States. It's something that Democrats and Republicans agree on, ”La Razón editorialized.
Sánchez's failure is due to disoriented Spanish foreign policy, the newspaper opined, and “occurs at a time when one of the strategic flanks of Spanish international politics has been questioned. Specifically, the relations with Rabat on behalf of the Sahara, the frivolity of the leftist government ministers in questioning the territorial aspirations of Morocco and, finally, the inexplicable diplomatic clumsiness in welcoming the leader of the Polisario Front ”.
La Razón recalled that Donald Trump "marked the doctrine around the Sahara by recognizing Moroccan sovereignty" and Biden has no intention of changing the pace. “Biden does not seem willing to spend political capital on the Sahara conflict. If Biden were to bet on reversing the recognition, he could lose part of his influence over Morocco, " said Riccardo Fabiani of the prestigious International Crisis Group, based in Brussels, as quoted by El Periódico.
Origin of the crisis
Precisely, the leftist allies of the Sánchez government brought the crisis unleashed by Madrid to the European Parliament by secretly hosting Morocco's number one enemy, Brahim Ghali, the Polisario's separatist militia chief in April.
The arrival of Ghali in Spain, negotiated with Algeria and with a false identity to try to evade justice by being accused of murders, torture and rapes, generated the crisis with Rabat.
Last week, the European Parliament issued a resolution against Morocco, blaming it for the migration crisis that occurred in May in Ceuta, which, together with Melilla, are two colonies occupied by Spain in disputed Moroccan territories. The resolution lacks applicability, but it showed that Spain seeks to Europeanize a bilateral crisis.
Ghali, after receiving the sought hospital treatment for six weeks, fled from Spain to Algeria in the same sloppy way as he had arrived. Algeria was the creator of the Polisario, it arms, trains and finances it, due to its desire for 45 years to seize the territory of the Sahara, which due to historical legitimacy and international legality is an integral part of Morocco.
'The instrumentalization of the European Parliament in this crisis is counterproductive. Far from contributing to the solution, it is part of a logic of political escalation in the short term,” said Nasser Bourita, Moroccan Foreign Minister this week. The maneuver, he warned, "aims to avoid the debate on a crisis that is there because its root causes continue." "The Moroccan-Spanish crisis is linked to the attitude and action of Spain on the issue of the Sahara, a sacred cause of the nation of Morocco," he reiterated.
In this regard, the Moroccan House of Representatives denounced "ulterior motives" and "falsehoods" in the motion approved by the European Parliament. "It is evident that this is a maneuver to divert attention from a political crisis between Morocco and Spain," he said.
In a statement, the Arab Parliament criticized "the position of the European Parliament and its stubbornness in interfering in a bilateral crisis that can be resolved through diplomatic channels and direct bilateral negotiations between Morocco and Spain." It stated, from its headquarters in Cairo, that this decision exacerbates existing tensions and rejected discriminatory treatment when it comes to Arab matters.
In this sense, La Razón editorialized last week on Spain's “childish strategy” of trying to Europeanize a bilateral crisis and referred to “neo-colonialism against Morocco”. The newspaper described what was done by Madrid as a "guilty misconduct in international politics and a contempt for Moroccans." “We are facing a serious crisis as a consequence of a decision that favored the Polisario in its fight against Morocco. It is not a minor issue” he pointed out.
"It does not respond to a strategy on the Sahara," the newspaper said. “This is the most grotesque part, because it could be understood that the government decided to take the Polisario side, even if it is nonsense and an attack on a country with which so much history, culture and interests of all kinds unite us. On the other hand, inexperience and arrogance are at the origin of what has happened ”, he concluded.
By: Demetrio Olaciregui Q
