The Diplomat
The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, came out yesterday to the serious diplomatic crisis with Rabat warning Morocco that “Spain will not accept blackmail” nor will it negotiate “its integrity”.
“Spain is not to be trifled with. Morocco will have to reconsider what it has done by putting the lives of minors at risk”, declared Robles – also a former acting foreign minister – during an interview granted to Las mañanas de Radio Nacional de España, days after the massive entry of 8,000 migrants into Ceuta in the face of the passivity of the Moroccan authorities.
The arrivals have slowed down after the closure of the border, which took place this Wednesday. So far, some 5,600 migrants have already been returned to Morocco, according to the Interior Ministry, but the Government still has to face the problem of what to do with the 1,500 unaccompanied minors, who cannot be returned if they do not accept it.
“We will not accept blackmail, the integrity of Spain is not negotiable or at stake and we will use all necessary means to guarantee territorial integrity and guard the borders”, continued Margarita Robles, who accused Rabat of violating the rules of international law by “throwing” its citizens, including minors, to cross the border with Spain. “Morocco is a neighboring country, a friend, and has to reconsider what it has done in recent days”, since “it has not only done it to Spain, but to the European Union”, she warned.
Apart from this, Margarita Robles accused the PP and Vox of “playing politics” with this situation and warned that “there are matters, such as the fight against the pandemic or a crisis like this, in which you have to make state policy. There are other areas in which to oppose”.
The detonator of the current diplomatic crisis with Morocco has been the decision of the Government to allow the entry into Spain, clandestinely and without informing Rabat, of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, who has been admitted to a hospital in Logroño after contracting the coronavirus. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, insisted Wednesday that Spain welcomed Ghali as a “humanitarian gesture” and acknowledged that she had never thought that it would be interpreted by Morocco as an “aggression”.
The National Court has summoned Ghali for next June 1 to answer charges of war crimes following a complaint by the Saharawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights. The Saharawi leader refused to sign the summons and asked to be put in contact first with the Algerian Embassy in Madrid. In any case, the judge of the National Court Santiago Pedraz refused to order immediate imprisonment for Ghali, as requested by the plaintiffs, without prejudice to the possibility of deciding on such a precautionary measure when he comes to testify on June 1.
