Spanish Officials Protest Morocco’s Map Claiming Ceuta and Melilla

Imbroda denounces a new "aggression" by Morocco, which has integrated the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla into its territory on an official map. This map of the kingdom is available on the official website of the Moroccan embassy in Madrid, Imbroda specified on social media, reaffirming the Spanish identity of Melilla, a city that will be 526 years old on September 17 and that existed "459 years before the independence of Morocco".

Morocco would have a secret plan to "recover" Ceuta and Melilla as well as the Canary Islands. A former Spanish intelligence agent, Fernando San Agustín, has confirmed that this plan by Morocco is not new and has been implemented for some time.

European Parliament members of Ciudadanos, Maite Pagazaurtundua and Jordi Cañas, have addressed a parliamentary question to the European Commission on Morocco’s claims on the two presidios. In response, Josep Borell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, supported that Ceuta and Melilla "are Spanish and belong to the European Union".

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, declared on February 2 in Rabat that Spain and Morocco have made a commitment of mutual respect which consists in "avoiding anything that offends the other party, especially what affects our respective spheres of sovereignty".