Spain complains to Rabat for calling Ceuta and Melilla ‘Moroccan cities’

OVIEDO, Spain

In the latest episode of a long-standing dispute, Spain lodged a formal complaint this week against Morocco after the latter referred to Ceuta and Melilla as "Moroccan cities."

Prominent Spanish news outlets including Efe and El Pais reported that Spain’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said it “categorically rejects” any Moroccan claims to the North African cities.

“Spain’s borders, including Ceuta and Mellia, are internationally recognized,” Spanish diplomats told Moroccan authorities.

The diplomatic spat comes weeks after Morocco protested over European Commission official Margaritis Schinas referring to Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish cities with EU borders.

In a document sent to the EU, Rabat described her declarations as “hostile” and laid claim to the two cities.

This renewed discord over the Spanish territories arises just months after Spain and Morocco inked a series of agreements intended to "consolidate a new era of mutual trust and genuine cooperation," in the words of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Outside of the agreements, Sanchez said the two nations vowed to avoid policies or discourse that will “offend the other party, especially when it comes to our respective spheres of sovereignty.”

With that, Sanchez was alluding to Morocco’s claims on Western Sahara, as well as Ceuta and Melilla, which are internationally recognized as Spanish but are surrounded by Moroccan territory.

Relations between Madrid and Rabat reached a boiling point in 2021, after Spain provided covert COVID-19 treatment to a separatist leader of Western Sahara.

In the wake of this revelation, Moroccan authorities stood by as thousands of migrants swam from Morocco to Ceuta.

To appease Morrocco, Madrid undid 50 years of formal Spanish neutrality on the issue of Western Sahara independence. That’s when Sanchez, in a letter to King Mohammed VI, described the Moroccan proposal for Western Sahara autonomy as “the most serious, credible, and realistic basis” for resolving the conflict.

Yet, despite these attempts to mend bilateral ties, tensions around the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla remain.