Moroccan Socialist Leader Urges Spain to Negotiate Future of Ceuta and Melilla

"We believe it is time to start discussing calmly and reasonably the future of Sebta and Melilla, taking into account the interests of the Spanish and Moroccan populations living there," said Driss Lachgar in a letter addressed to the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez. The USFP leader referred to the diplomatic crisis coupled with the migration crisis caused by the emergency admission of the Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to a hospital in Logroña under a false identity without Spain warning "its partner Morocco".

"Relations between our two countries are at their worst following", in particular your visit as Prime Minister to the occupied city of Ceuta and the deployment of Spanish army units which is a show of force aimed at provocation," he said, criticizing the attacks of the Spanish press against Morocco and the Spanish government’s recourse to its colonial past to justify its anti-Moroccan positions. According to Driss Lachgar, "talking today about Spain’s historical or administrative responsibility for the Saharan provinces of Morocco is nothing more than nostalgia for an ignominious colonial past and in contradiction with the values we defend as social democrats".

The USFP first secretary recalled that part of northern and southern Morocco, Sidi Ifni, Tarfaya and the Sahara, had been colonized by Spain, but "Spain has never claimed its historical responsibility towards the populations" after the recovery of these provinces. "Why then does it still insist on claiming its guardianship and responsibility concerning the population of the Saharan provinces in particular," asks Driss Lachgar.

"Unfortunately, the conflict provoked in the Moroccan Sahara is but an episode of a conspiratorial approach aimed at dividing and encircling Morocco," he notes, explaining that this "has materialized through financial and media support for the separatists and the establishment of a Madrid-Algiers axis whose latest collusion was the falsification of the identity of your guest," (Brahim Ghali).