Morocco Intensifies Pressure on Spanish Enclaves Ceuta and Melilla

"Europe knows perfectly well what the borders of Europe are and that Ceuta and Melilla are part of it," declared on June 21 the diplomat Javier Rupérez, during the presentation in Madrid of a report entitled "The role of Ceuta and Melilla in the global agenda", carried out by the ’think tank’ Europa Ciudadana. A month earlier, in May, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denounced in a letter the "hostile declarations" of Margaritis Schinas, the Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of immigration, on the "Moroccan cities of Ceuta and Melilla", recalls El Debate.

The report evokes a "hybrid" strategy of Morocco which "uses Ceuta and Melilla and its diplomatic relations with Spain to pursue its interests", denouncing the claims of Morocco to "sow doubt about the Spanishness" of the two presidios. "Spain has failed to obtain from Rabat an explicit recognition of Spanish sovereignty and territorial integrity. Therefore, we cannot conclude that Ceuta and Melilla will enjoy peace of mind in the future," the report notes.

In April, the President of the Moroccan Senate, Enaam Mayara, had called for the "liberation" of Ceuta and Melilla, causing a major controversy in Spain. In response, the Spanish Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, had recalled that "Ceuta and Melilla are as Spanish as Zamora or Palencia and there is nothing more to discuss on this subject". "[...] Morocco has never ceased, since its independence, to demand the end of the Spanish occupation of Ceuta, Melilla and the neighboring islands to the north of the kingdom," declared in July 2022, Mohammed VI, calling for the establishment of a Moroccan-Spanish cell to "find a solution to the problem of these occupied areas".

In any case, an armed intervention by Morocco to recover Ceuta and Melilla is excluded, according to experts, even if the rapid rearmament of the kingdom in recent years, with the support of the United States and Israel, can make Spain fear the worst. Morocco has recently acquired the American Himars missile and the Israeli-made PULS rocket launcher with a range of 300 kilometers, capable of reaching cities south of Spain in the event of an attack.