London : Spanish Foreign Minister Manuel Albaris renewed support for the United Nations efforts to find a solution to the Western Sahara conflict, and stressed Madrid's endeavor to establish good relations with Algeria based on mutual respect and non-interference in internal affairs.
The Spanish diplomat's statements come after his meeting on Saturday with the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in the Sahara conflict, Staffan de Mistura. Albaris revealed, in a tweet to him on Twitter, that he discussed with the UN official the Sahara conflict, and renewed Spain's support for his endeavors aimed at an agreed solution. The meeting between the two parties came on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. It is also happening with the approach of a new round of the UN envoy to move the negotiations in search of a solution to the Sahara conflict.
The current Spanish administration adopts support for the autonomy scheme as a solution to the Sahara conflict, after a thorny crisis that erupted in late 2020 to mid-2022 due to Madrid's opposition to the American recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara. But Madrid does not defend the proposal for autonomy in international institutions such as the United Nations, unlike a previous socialist government headed by José Luis Septero. In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last September, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez contented himself with supporting the efforts of the United Nations and avoiding referring to autonomy.
And the file of Spain’s relations with Morocco and Algeria became remarkably present in the political and media discourse, as he attended Albaris’s statements last Friday at a symposium in Barcelona, where he defended the necessity of establishing good relations with Morocco, saying: “Morocco is a neighbor and we are united by land borders,” referring to To the border between Ceuta and Melilla and the rest of the Moroccan territory. What remains interesting is the insistence of this minister, for the first time in the history of Spanish diplomacy, to emphasize the Spanishness of Ceuta and Melilla on every occasion, without Morocco's reaction. It also confirms the success of the Sanchez government in the customs of Ceuta and Melilla borders with Morocco, especially Ceuta, in a historical precedent in bilateral relations, after commercial smuggling was prevalent.
In the city of Barcelona itself, Albaris considered, in response to the quality of relations with Algeria , that “Spain desires relations with Algeria like all relations with neighboring countries and Arab countries, relations based on friendship, mutual respect, mutual benefit, and non-interference in internal affairs.”
Algeria has withdrawn its ambassador from Algeria since last April as a protest against Spain's support for autonomy in the Sahara.
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