The Spanish Government Explains Its Position on the Sahrawi Issue

In what seemed to be an attempt to avoid the responsibility of canceling or postponing the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, to Algeria, which was scheduled for this week according to the Spanish agenda, the government of Pedro Sanchez came out by confirming its position on the Sahrawi issue, which involves a lot of manipulation and playing with the situation.
In an answer to a written question from the Spanish Parliament to the government, dated February 12, the same day as José Manuel Albares’ visit to Algeria, it said in the text of the answer: “Spain’s position on Western Sahara is fully in line with international legitimacy”, as the Prime Minister has already indicated at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023.
The response adds, as stated in a document in possession of Echorouk Daily, “Spain supports the achievement of a political solution acceptable to both parties in accordance with the United Nations Charter and Security Council resolutions,” which is a famous statement in which the Algerian authorities read as a retraction by the Spanish government of the blatant bias contained in the letter that Sanchez addressed to the Moroccan King Mohammed VI in the spring of 2022.
This message, as is known, caused a harsh decision by the Algerian authorities, which led to a state of estrangement with its Spanish counterpart, which later developed into the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship and Good Neighborliness signed between the two countries in 2002, in addition to painful economic sanctions that caused the bankruptcy of many Spanish companies.
However, the response of the Spanish government, on the other hand, revealed manipulations and games on both sides, in a paragraph that followed the aforementioned sentence, when it added that “the position recognized in point 1 of the joint declaration issued on April 7, 2022, as well as point 8 of the declaration issued on February 2, 2023. “.
However, the document quickly returned to reinforce what Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said at the UN Security Council in September 2023, stressing that “Spain welcomes the efforts of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Staffan de Mistura. This work is essential and is based on the responsibility of the Spanish government.”
Returning to the first point of the Spanish-Moroccan Joint Declaration of April 7, 2022, we find that it states: “Spain recognizes the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco and the serious and credible efforts made by Morocco, within the framework of the United Nations, to find a compatible solution to this issue. In this context, Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative presented by Morocco in 2007 as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving this conflict.
The link between supporting the efforts of the United Nations and its Special Envoy, on the one hand, and considering the autonomy plan presented by the Moroccan regime in 2007 as “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving this conflict”, on the other hand, constitutes a blatant contradiction that no reasonable person can accept, in addition to being inconsistent with the neutral position of the Spanish State regarding The Sahrawi issue has been around for about five decades.
The Spanish government’s response emphasized some traditional roles, such as “continuing to support the Sahrawi population in the camps, as it has always done,” and emphasizing that Madrid is “the first bilateral and unilateral European donor among the donors, with the greatest presence and ability to talk to … the Sahrawi authorities in charge of cooperation, as well as non-governmental organizations, while maintaining our new status as a major international humanitarian donor in this context. Sahrawi authorities responsible for cooperation, as well as non-governmental organizations, while maintaining our new status as a major international humanitarian donor in this context”, this cannot change the reality of the situation, that there has been a shift in the Spanish position, and that the Madrid government is unable or unwilling to correct its position.
The choice of the time factor, represented by the date of February 12, 2024 (the date of Albares’ visit to Algeria), to circulate the Spanish government’s response explaining its position on the Sahrawi issue, suggests another attempt by Madrid to confirm a position that it believes satisfies the Algerian party, which is an incomplete reading that has failed to prove its falsity.