Morocco-Spain: a comprehensive offer from Morocco for the Sahara and the Canary Islands?

Abandon its claims on the Canaries and obtain recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara, the management of its airspace, the delimitation of maritime borders with the archipelago, and rights over Mount Tropic. This is the offer made by Morocco to Spain, three weeks after the UN resolution on the Sahara, validating the Moroccan autonomy plan for this territory, considered as the basis for negotiations between the Moroccan authorities and the Polisario Front for the settlement of this conflict. "It now appears that we should be grateful to King Mohammed VI for helping us consolidate Spain’s sovereignty over the Canaries," ironizes José Antonio Yturriaga, a legal expert in the law of the sea. For him and other Spanish jurists, the assimilation of Western Sahara to the Canary archipelago seems blatant.

This offer, revealed by the Spanish online media Atalayar, which explains that the objective is to "formulate a comprehensive proposal with a view to a bilateral agreement" between Spain and Morocco, has since been relayed by several Moroccan media. But this offer is misleading, analyzes El Confidencial, stressing that Western Sahara is not comparable to the Canaries and that even if some maps show the archipelago as part of Greater Morocco, the Moroccan and Spanish authorities do not question Spain’s sovereignty over the Canary Islands. It should be recalled that the Moroccan Parliament had adopted in 2020 an extension of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) up to 200 miles, encroaching on the maritime space of the Canaries.

On the other hand, Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonization. Only the United States since 2020 and France since 2024 have officially recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over this former Spanish colony. However, many other European countries, including Spain in 2022, have expressed their support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara. This Moroccan proposal was ultimately approved by the United Nations Security Council in its Resolution 2797 adopted on October 31, 2025. But supporting this Moroccan plan does not amount to recognizing the Moroccanness of the Sahara, the Spanish media nuances.

The Moroccan authorities think the opposite. According to them, the UN resolution is equivalent to an "international recognition of the kingdom’s sovereignty" over the Sahara. It creates, with the 2022 Spain-Morocco roadmap, "a favorable environment for the advancement of bilateral negotiations [with Spain] on maritime delimitation, the extension of the continental shelf, underwater prospecting and mining, Mount Tropic and the management of airspace." It should be noted that in addition to the Canaries, Morocco also claims the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, which it considers "occupied" territories of Spain.