Morocco began negotiations with Spain and the European Union (EU) on the basis of cooperation funds. According to reports, last Wednesday, EU representatives held a meeting with the Ministry of the Interior in Rabat and signed a cooperation agreement there. Already able to understand Spanish.
The cooperation plan is aimed at border management and immigration. According to the same source, in Morocco, it was reactivated with the delivery of vehicles and border security cameras to the Royal Armed Forces and eventually the Moroccan Army. As this newspaper has learned, this is where the two sides negotiate through cross-information and corrections to the norms under a tense atmosphere.
It was at the relaunch of cooperation in this area that special tensions arose in the region, and Diplomatic breakdown between Rabat and Algiers, el Natural gas supply cuts off the main pipeline passing through Morocco It left most of the fuel needed for civilian consumption and industry in the country… and the Polisario Front was also included in the process of escalating military tensions among the three parties.
At this point, Jose Manuel Albares, a source from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that the Spanish government has adopted itself as Facilitator or mediator in the North African scenario.
In addition, the operation aims to strengthen the operational capabilities of Moroccan institutions in integrated border management in accordance with the humanitarian approach of the Moroccan SNIA (National Immigration and Asylum Strategy).
Some project guidelines are to improve the operational skills of border surveillance (land and sea), combat migrant smuggling and human trafficking, and improve inter-agency and cross-border cooperation in the field of irregular migration.
This project of the EU North Africa Trust Fund has purchased more equipment than other projects managed by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policy (FIIAPP). “This is mainly due to the EU’s decision to provide Morocco with substantial support for material and border management capabilities in 2018, amounting to 44 million euros,” the agency said.
Since 2014, Europe has pledged to provide 232 million euros through various funds and instruments to support immigration-related actions in Maghreb countries.
Dual-use technology materials
In this way, the Moroccan Ministry of Interior has managed to purchase telecommunications equipment for navigation and navigation in the past two years, including drones, maritime radars, portable GPS, surveying and mapping systems and other surveillance equipment; and more than a thousand vehicles of different levels. Vehicles, from SUVs and minivans, to trucks, minibuses and motorcycles.
Human rights defenders want to know how to control these materials at the immigration border in full-scale clashes with Algeria and the Polisario Front.
In fact, over the past decade, the administrative level that supplies weapons to Morocco has received frequent complaints. The professor of international law explained to EL ESPAÑOL: “For law enforcement agencies, it is basically repressive material and is considered to be a dual-use technical material, because obviously it is used as a harmless material for civilian use, but it can be reused as repressive material. Work.” and International Relations by Javier G. Vega.
Spanish law prohibits the government from exporting weapons to countries that violate human rights, They can be used to suppress the population or suffer conflicts. Under these circumstances, Morocco has been in conflict with the Polisario Front since the ceasefire was broken on November 13, 2020. It is for this reason that the signed document did not consider the use of the promised materials for the Moroccan armed forces.
The latest episode took place over the weekend when the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces destroyed a 4×4 vehicle south of the security wall near the town of Gleba El Fula in Western Sahara.
The Algerian government also accused Rabat of killing three Algerian truck drivers in a bombing in the same area a week ago.
Senior Moroccan officials meet in Madrid
After resuming cooperation in the field of immigration, there is hope Restore diplomatic, political and economic ties, They came back to turn neighboring countries into allies.
However, King Mohammed VI’s speech on the anniversary of the Green Parade on November 6 fell like a pot of cold water in the Spanish diplomatic class, who is committed to calming things down and restoring good relations with neighboring countries. He saw the hidden threat to Spain as the first business partner in the words of the Alawite monarch.
The sovereign state of Morocco issues an ultimatum to its partners to take a clear position on the conflict in Western Sahara As a way to continue cooperation in the economic field.
A source in the Spanish government admitted that The tone of these messages does not help this “new relationship” Between the two countries, but they interpret it as domestic consumption, and hope to restore the “highest level” contact as soon as possible. In other words, Mohammed VI received Pedro Sanchez before the end of the year or early 2022.
And after the resumption of cooperation, Senior officials from the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are preparing for the meeting in Madrid Earlier this year, according to the Moroccan police, we arrived at EL ESPAÑOL in advance. Initially, they planned to hold it in early December, which coincides with Spain’s Constitution Day.
The first step in Madrid’s management can be understood as the motivation for the final meeting between the king and the Spanish president. In any case, they pointed out from foreign intelligence that this is a meeting of technicians between ministries and commissions, not a meeting of government representatives, because they believe that as the relationship develops, the meeting becomes more and more complicated.