Madrid Covers Up Transfer Of Airspace Control In Occupied Western Sahara

In response to a parliamentary question by the representative of the Canary Islands Coalition, Cristina Valedo, the Spanish government said that in the last two years two meetings were held with representatives of the Moroccan regime to discuss the issue of airspace management in the occupied Western Sahara, which is one of the complex files that were the focus of negotiations between Rabat and Madrid, Since the deviation that occurred in the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue, about two years ago.
Despite the attempts of the Alawite regime in Rabat to pretend that it has decided the Sahara issue in its favor, as it promotes every time through its officials and the media, it does not dare to address the Moroccan people and tell them that the airspace of Western Sahara, because it is still under Spanish sovereignty, is currently controlled from the Canary Islands, opposite the Atlantic coast of Western Sahara, despite the fact that about 48 years have passed since the last Spanish soldier left this former Spanish colony.
The Spanish government’s talk about the existence of stalled negotiations for two years came as part of an answer to a parliamentary question presented by the representative of the Canary Coalition, Cristina Valledo, according to what was reported by the agency “Europa Press”. The question concerns the agreements reached with the Alawite regime on the management of airspace in occupied Western Sahara.
The issue of the management of the airspace in Western Sahara, currently under Spain by decision of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) since its withdrawal in 1976, constituted one of the points of contention between Madrid and Rabat, which was included in the joint declaration issued on April 7, 2022 during the visit that led the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, to the Moroccan capital and his meeting with the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI, a declaration that also included Sanchez’s support for the autonomy plan in the occupied Western Sahara, which was presented by the Moroccan regime in 2007.
In its answer to the parliamentary question, the Madrid government did not provide details about the course of the alleged negotiations and their prospects, which suggests that the Spanish party is hesitant to respond to Moroccan demands, especially since Spain is considered the party with the administration in Western Sahara, according to the United Nations resolutions.
Last March, Sahrawi President Ibrahim Ghali sent a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warning of the consequences of handing over the management of Sahrawi airspace to the Moroccan regime. He said in this letter that if “the intention of the Spanish government to transfer the management of the airspace is confirmed… “to the occupying state of Morocco, this would constitute a violation of the international status of the territory as a territory included in the United Nations list awaiting decolonization, as well as a violation of Spain’s international obligations as the administering power of Western Sahara.”
The Sahrawi President stressed the need to “ensure full respect for the status of Western Sahara as a territory subject to the process of decolonization and under the jurisdiction of the United Nations, whose Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is present in the territory”. He also held Madrid “legally and morally responsible towards Western Sahara and its people until the completion of decolonization in the region,” considering that any “measure or agreement of this kind will be null, void and illegal under international law.”