Spain Grapples with Shifting Dynamics in Western Sahara Conflict

Undoubtedly concerned by this conflict and indeed part of the "Friends of the Sahara Club", Spain has received with coldness and great caution the American decision to recognize the full and complete Moroccanness of the Sahara, reports the magazine BAB in its February issue, adding that this act comes to change the balances maintained in favor of the status quo that has prevailed in the region for years. The country, the same source recalls, hosts an American military base in the southwest of Andalusia and is directly concerned by the recent decision of Morocco to give a legal basis, with the adoption of a law, to the delimitation of its maritime borders.

If the Iberian peninsula has always adopted a certain ambiguity in the face of the Sahara issue, the socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, for its part, stands out with positive signs regarding the official position of Spain, torn between the autonomy solution, dear to the UN, and the theses of the separatist front to which its public opinion and certain politicians, even within the governing coalition, remain always acquainted, observes the monthly, citing the case of the vice-president of the government and leader of the far-left party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, several times at the origin of political crises with Morocco.

The country’s embarrassment is great given the weight of Morocco in certain crucial issues for all of Europe, such as migration and security files and other files directly concerning Spain, for example, that of fishing. The EU, while avoiding following in the footsteps of the United States, is not ready, like Spain, to turn its back on the interests it derives from its multiple agreements concluded with Morocco.

While it severely represses any secessionist tendencies in Catalonia (7.5 million inhabitants), Spain continues to unofficially support the self-determination of a few thousand Polisario separatists. A paradox, denounces the monthly, which urges Spain, as well as the entire European Union, to lay the foundations for a new relationship with Morocco, based on frankness and transparency.