The long held dream of Moroccans to get back their Spanish occupied territory, may be a step closer with the release of a new book that shows just how firmly the notion is on the political agenda.
French president Jacques Chirac suggested to former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar that Spain should turn over Ceuta, Melilla, and Spanish uninhabited islands along the north coast of Africa to Morocco in order to solve the Perejil Island crisis. Moroccan troops had illegally landed on Perejil, a Spanish possession near Ceuta, and raised that country's flag. Spanish troops reoccupied the island without violence. Aznar made the statement in a book titled Distant Neighbors: The Secrets of the Spain-Morocco Crisis by Ignacio Cembrero.
The book also includes a statement by former CNI (Spanish secret service) chief Jorge Dezcallar, who said that the Perejil Island crisis was "the tipping point that made Aznar jump into Bush's arms," since the US was the only country that supported Spain in its attempts to solve the dispute.
Cembrero's book analyzes the relationship between Spain and Morocco since King Mohammed VI acceded to the throne, and also includes the opinions of dozens of officials, diplomats, and business executives from Spain, Morocco, France, and Algeria. According to Cembrero, the Perejil crisis could have been solved in another way, "but they wanted to give the most attention-getting lesson possible to Morocco and its King." He quotes Aznar saying that the crisis "could not be explained without Chirac's practically unconditional support" for Mohammed VI.
Cembrero believes that the Zapatero government "has gone very far in its approach to Morocco," and sometimes Spain's relationship with Morocco "goes beyond" that country's relationship with France, "Morocco's principal European ally." In his opinion, drawing the maritime frontier between Spain and Morocco in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the relationship between Ceuta and Melilla and their hinterlands, are the two principal problems between the countries.
Cembrero declared, "The most interesting question in upcoming years in Morocco is to learn whether the monarchy is capable of channeling Islamism," since, he said, "Moroccan society in its great majority agrees with the Islamists," and political Islamism is the strongest force in the country.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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