Germany Snubs Spain, Invites Morocco to Libya Conference Amid Diplomatic Tensions

German President Angela Merkel sent an invitation to Morocco to participate in the second Berlin conference on the Libyan situation, diplomatic sources close to the organization tell El Confidencial. The objective was to seize this opportunity to try a reconciliation with Morocco with which relations are strained due to the German position on the Sahara issue. To achieve this objective, Germany chose not to invite Spain to this meeting, the same sources add. "Germany has sacrificed Spain in an attempt to turn the page with Morocco," they say.

But the charm offensive did not convince Morocco. Nasser Bourita, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, simply declined the German invitation. "Morocco’s role did not start in Berlin and does not end in Berlin," he said on June 24. And he added: "Morocco does not change its position depending on whether it is invited or not." Despite the absence of a Moroccan delegation at this Berlin meeting, the Moroccan flag appears in the official photographs of the meeting.

On March 1, Morocco suspended its relations with Germany and German institutions, effectively blocking the implementation of commitments planned for Morocco, say German diplomatic sources. The kingdom has also suspended its cooperation with German consulates in Rabat and Casablanca, causing prejudice to German residents and tourists in Morocco. "The competent Moroccan authorities refuse to provide consular services to German citizens without giving any justification," the German embassy in Rabat said in a statement published on June 10 on its website. To drive the point home, Morocco has also suspended its police, including anti-terrorist, cooperation with Germany. "There is no security cooperation with Germany," Habboub Cherkaoui, director of the BCIJ, said on June 25.

For now, Russia remains the only country not to suffer Morocco’s wrath, despite its criticism of the US recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara. On December 12, 2020 and June 11, 2021, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for Russian diplomacy, supported the fact that President Trump’s decision "undermines the internationally recognized legal framework for resolving the Western Sahara issue, which envisages determining the final status of the territory through a referendum supported by the UN".