After its victory at the UN on the Sahara, Morocco revives its claims on Ceuta and Melilla

At the request of the United States, the UN Security Council on Friday approved a resolution calling on Morocco and the Polisario Front to resume negotiations, but "on the basis of the Moroccan autonomy proposal," considered the "most viable solution" to the conflict that has lasted for half a century. In March 2022, Pedro Sánchez had expressed in a letter addressed to King Mohammed VI his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara, considered as the "most just, credible, realistic" basis for resolving this conflict, thus ending a long diplomatic crisis between the two countries, recalls El Confidencial.

This diplomatic success of Morocco, which is gradually rallying the international community to its cause with regard to the Sahara, could strengthen it in its claims on Ceuta, Melilla and the Spanish islands and rocks, analyze European diplomats accredited in Rabat. "The time has come for a unified Morocco, from Tangier to Lagouira, whose rights and historical borders no one will be able to violate," King Mohammed VI said in the speech delivered on Friday, following the announcement of the UN vote.

According to the Spanish media, Rabat has four claims on Spanish territories, two of which are directly related to the Sahara. First, Morocco wants Spain to transfer control of the airspace of the Sahara, managed since 1975 by the Spanish public company ENAIRE from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for civil flights. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, recently denied the existence of an agreement to transfer this airspace to Morocco. Then, Morocco wants Spain to clarify its position on the Sahara and recognize its sovereignty over this territory, as Presidents Donald Trump in December 2020 and Emmanuel Macron in July 2024 have done.

Morocco also aspires to establish a border between the Canary Islands and its Atlantic coast, which would include the waters of the Sahara. In April 2022, the roadmap adopted after Sanchez’s visit to Rabat announced the "relaunch of the working group on the delimitation of maritime spaces on the Atlantic facade." The group has made no progress so far. Finally, Morocco is developing a strategy to stifle Ceuta and Melilla. The commercial customs inaugurated in Ceuta, and those of Melilla closed since August 2018 and reopened at the beginning of the year, are not functioning due to the slowness of the Moroccan controls which do not apply the reciprocity regime for travelers.