Morocco Expands Maritime Claims, Challenging Spanish Control of Mediterranean Islands

In addition to the waters of the Saharan coast in the Atlantic and those overlapping the Canary Islands, Morocco also wants to delimit the waters off the Mediterranean coast in the north of the country. These include the Chafarinas Islands, Alborán and Perejil (Persil), as well as the rocks of Al Hoceima and Vélez de la Gomera. "The working group on the delimitation of the maritime spaces of the Atlantic coast will be reactivated, with the aim of making concrete progress," states point 6 of the joint declaration between Pedro Sanchez and Mohammed VI, signed in Rabat on April 7.

The working group has already held at least two sessions in Madrid to delimit the waters overlapping Morocco, the Sahara and the Canary Islands. The two parties have claimed sovereignty over these maritime spaces and prefer to negotiate before taking the case to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Morocco does not recognize these maritime spaces as Spanish, but considers them under its sovereignty. The kingdom, for example, believes that the rock of Vélez de la Gomera, 85 meters long, which is under the maritime captaincy of Melilla, has only five meters of Spanish territorial waters.

This pressure on the Spanish rocks and islands off the Moroccan coast could be a strategy by Morocco to gain an advantage in the delimitation of the waters of the Canary Islands and the Sahara, analyze experts. To date, there is no clearly agreed delimitation of these waters, neither in the islets, nor in the rocks, nor even in the cases of Ceuta and Melilla, explains Alejandro del Valle, professor of international law at the University of Cádiz. "The meetings of the working group will bear fruit; all the commitments will be implemented," Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares recently assured.

Moreover, the president of the provincial council of Nador, Said Rahmouni, recently went to Madrid to try to conclude neighborhood agreements with Melilla, in order to define a new border model with the autonomous city. An initiative that is in line with the "advanced regionalization" project proposed by King Mohammed VI. Pedro Sánchez has already expressed Spain’s support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for this territory, which he considers the "most serious, credible and realistic" solution to end the conflict.