Morocco’s "Hybrid Strategy" Aims to Claim Spanish Enclaves, Report Warns

According to the political science professors, authors of the report, Morocco would be deploying a "hybrid strategy" with the aim of "seizing Ceuta and Melilla without forcing an open war". "It is important, through work like this, to obtain a correct diagnosis of what is happening in order to propose concrete solutions," emphasizes Manuel R. Torres, one of the authors of the document.

The experts based their analysis on the events that occurred in recent months (the closure of the borders and the migration crisis last May), but also in recent years (the closure of the customs post in Melilla in 2018 and the halt of the smuggling trade in Ceuta in 2019), to study the policy of blockade and pressure developed by Morocco on the two autonomous cities, not to mention its dynamic of modernization of the Royal Armed Forces.

"The actions taken by Morocco since the summer of 2018 towards Ceuta and Melilla have led the Spanish government to adopt a clear position and the European Union to defend the sovereignty of these two territories as Spanish as Malaga or Valladolid," explained Carlos Echeverría, the director of the Ceuta and Melilla Observatory.

In short, the experts believe that Morocco is trying to annex Ceuta and Melilla using various means of pressure, without however resorting to the use of armed force.