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Spain offers to speak for Morocco at EU amid migration spat

Published:Tuesday | May 25, 2021 | 12:13 AM
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels yesterday.
AP
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels yesterday.

MADRID (AP):

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday that Spain is an ally of Morocco, and Madrid will defend both countries’ common interests at the European Union (EU), in remarks that came a week after bilateral relations dipped to a decades-old low over migration and Western Sahara.

Spain has provided medical treatment for the Sahrawi leader heading the fight for an independent Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco in the 1970s. Rabat has reacted furiously and recalled its ambassador in Madrid.

“There is no better or greater ally within the European Union than Spain to defend strategic interests so important for Morocco and so necessary for the European Union as well,” Sánchez said in Brussels before a summit of the bloc’s leaders.

The diplomatic spat resulted in the sudden arrival of at least 8,000 migrants in Spain’s northern African enclave of Ceuta. Spain says most of the adults have been returned in summary pushbacks that have been criticised by human-rights groups, but at least 800 unaccompanied minors remain in government and charity shelters in Ceuta.