MADRID, 13 July — Spain and Morocco were locked in a heated military standoff yesterday over a disputed troop presence on a small uninhabited island in the Mediterranean Sea.
Madrid sent troop reinforcements and strengthened its military presence on islands near Morocco after Rabat sent a dozen troops to the disputed island of Perejil in what it said was a mission to watch for illegal immigrants and terrorists.
A dozen Moroccan soldiers have set up camp on the uninhabited island of Perejil, close to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast. The Spanish government called the incident “serious” and demanded the immediate removal of the troops from the island, which is claimed by both countries.
Morocco says that it sent the soldiers to the island — which it calls Leila — to guard against drug smuggling and illegal immigration across the 12-mile wide strait between Africa and Europe.
The move may be directly linked to the progress in negotiations on joint British-Spanish sovereignty over Gibraltar. Rabat could be using the little island to remind Madrid that it believes that it has an equally good case for sovereignty over the two Spanish enclaves on the Moroccan coast, Ceuta and Melilla.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, Ana Palacio, said the occupation of the island was “very serious”. By erecting two tents and raising two Moroccan flags, she said, Rabat had breached a friendship treaty between the two nations signed in 1991.
Spain regards the island as part of its enclave of Ceuta. Morocco says that it is in its territorial waters. There have been tensions between the two countries for several months over the smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants across the straits of Gibraltar. Morocco has rejected Spanish and EU demands that it withdraw its troops from the rocky outcrop, which lies only 200 meters from its coast.
A Moroccan government official said the troops had “every right” to be there, insisting that the island has been under Moroccan sovereignty since it was “liberated” in 1956, when the Spanish protectorate came to an end over the northern part of the kingdom.
The decision to set up an observation post was “neither a provocation nor a threat toward Spain,” the official said.
But Spanish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Miquel Nadal said the issue was “serious and worrying”, further souring relations between two countries that have spent this last year embroiled in several disputes.
The European Union jumped into the island dispute yesterday, siding with Spain and saying Rabat had committed “a violation of Spanish territorial integrity” with the troop deployment. (The Independent)
