Morocco's ambassador to Germany, Zohour Alaoui, who was recalled for consultations by her government last May after a bilateral crisis with Berlin, will return this week to her post in the German capital in a new sign of rapprochement between the two countries. The information was announced today by the Le360 website, which cites "a senior Moroccan diplomat", and confirmed to Efe by official sources.
"Morocco has been in an open crisis with Germany since last May, when it summoned its ambassador to Berlin in response to "hostile acts", considering that the German authorities had questioned Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
In a diplomatic note on German-Moroccan bilateral relations updated in December by the German foreign ministry, the new German government expressed its commitment to the UN-led process for the Sahara and referred to Morocco's "important contribution" in 2007 with an autonomy plan.
In the note, Berlin also described Morocco as a 'key partner of the EU and Germany in North Africa' and underlined its importance as a link between North and South. Morocco then announced that it would resume diplomatic cooperation with Germany in view of the 'positive announcements and constructive positions' made by the new German government.
On 5 January, Morocco reported that it had received a message from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, which Morocco welcomed as a new sign of a diplomatic thaw.
A month after Morocco's ambassador to Berlin returned to Rabat, Morocco recalled its diplomatic representative in Madrid, Karima Benyaich, for consultations following the inconclusive crisis with Spain over the reception in April of Polisario Front leader Brahim Gali for hospitalisation in the Spanish city of Logroño.
