The President of the Upper House of Morocco recoils from the claim on Ceuta and Melilla | Spain

Enaam Mayara ―president of the Moroccan Chamber of Councilors (equivalent to the Spanish Senate) and senior leader of the Istiqlal, a nationalist party that has claimed Ceuta and Melilla for Morocco since the independence of the Maghreb country in 1956― has criticized the claims and Ceu Melilla that he did last week in an act of his political organization. At the meeting, Mayara assured that Morocco will one day recover said “occupied cities through negotiation and without resorting to the use of weapons.” After the uproar that his words have raised in Spain — which includes the “forceful” rejection of the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles — the fourth authority of the Sherifian kingdom has preferred to correct the shot. “I formally reject having referred to Ceuta and Melilla (…) and I do not intend to get involved in an anti-Moroccan campaign,” she simply told the newspaper on Tuesday good, without offering further explanations. The nationalist Mayara has received criticism in recent days from the Moroccan official press for his slip-up. According to sources from his formation, his statements “were taken out of context and have been misinterpreted.”

Mayara was born in 1968 in Western Sahara, then considered by Spain as one of its provinces. His party, the nationalist and conservative Istiqlal, is part of the coalition of three formations that support the government of Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Ajanuch. Most of his public career has been spent in the Unión General de Trabajadores de Marrocos (UGTM) union, affiliated with Istiqlal, and in whose representation he has held a seat in the Chamber of Councilors since 1997. A spokesman for the UGTM union quoted by the digital portals al ayam Make sure that your statements about Ceuta and Melilla “were taken out of context and have been misinterpreted”. The same source clarified that Mayara “considers that bilateral relations should be framed in the joint declaration of the Spain-Morocco High Level Meeting” last February.

The nationalist leader had assured in a meeting of the women’s organization of his party, that, one year after the new stage of Spanish-Moroccan relations, after the roadmap signed on April 7, 2022 in Rabat between King Mohamed VI and President Pedro Sánchez, the Istiqlal “is now going to stop talking about the colonization of the two cities.” In her speech at a political evening organized in the middle of Ramadan, reported both on social networks and by the Moroccan press, and quoted by the Efe agency, Mayara also called on the Moroccan community settled in Spain (close to 800,000 residents, of whom that a third party already has a Spanish passport) to “form a lobby to help defend all issues related to the homeland, Morocco”, through its integration into political parties and its participation in the elections in Spain.

The rectification of the president of the Chamber of Councilors has taken place after an intensive campaign of criticism from the Moroccan official press, according to the digital LeDesk. From bartender, An information portal to which close ties to the security services are attributed, he was accused of not having lived up to the obligations of his high office. the informative website, Maghrebi intelligence being referred to as a “serial jinx”, before recalling that the direction of foreign policy is a constitutional prerogative reserved to the king of Mohamed VI.

Spain and Morocco promised more than two months ago in Rabat to avoid “everything that offends the other party in terms of sovereignty.” This understanding, announced by President Pedro Sánchez at the bilateral summit between the two governments, now seems to have been compromised to such an extent by Mayara’s words, that the Minister of Defense had to reiterate on Monday “with absolute and total forcefulness” that ” Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish”. “There is nothing more to discuss on this topic,” she added. In an interview broadcast on the Cuatro television network, Robles responded to the statements by the Istiqlal leader: “Ceuta and Melilla are as Spanish as Zamora or Palencia. There is no room for debate on this matter. spot”.

Sánchez plans to compare before Congress next week to give explanations, among other matters, about the progress of relations between Spain and Morocco a year after diplomatic reconciliation. The controversy unleashed by the president of the Moroccan Chamber of Councilors has already contributed to heating up the atmosphere by touching the sensitive nerve of the Spanishness of the North African autonomous cities.