The AEMET publishes a map of Morocco that includes Western Sahara

The Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has included Western Sahara on the map of Morocco in its various publications. 

Both on its website and in communications via social networks, the Spanish AEMET shows a map of the whole of Morocco, including the so-called southern provinces that the Moroccan kingdom claims as its own.

This is a further sign of Spanish support for Morocco's Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara as the ‘most serious, credible and realistic’ option for resolving the Saharawi dispute, which has lasted for almost five decades since the end of the Spanish colonial period.

Morocco proposes a formula for Western Sahara of broad autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty respecting the resolutions of the United Nations (UN), which would grant broad self-government to the Saharawis and would serve to develop the territory to the maximum in all aspects, leaving foreign and defence policy in the hands of the Moroccan state.

This initiative by the Moroccan kingdom has very broad international support, including that of countries such as the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Spain, etc., which see this option as the most realistic way to settle the dispute. 

This position contrasts with the proposal of the rival Polisario Front, which advocates a referendum on independence for the Saharawi population, which has less support on the international stage, including that of Algeria, Morocco's great regional rival, and which is difficult to materialise, as various experts have pointed out, due to problems such as that of drawing up a Saharawi electoral roll as the populations are scattered throughout various areas, such as Moroccan territory or refugee camps in Algeria itself.

Morocco attaches great importance to the question of Western Sahara because it has to do with the defence of its territorial integrity as it considers the area part of its southern provinces. 

And, in this sense, the support of Spain, as an allied country, neighbour and former colonising power in the area, is very important at present for the North African nation.

The Spanish government, led by Pedro Sánchez, has already shown its support for the Moroccan proposal with a letter sent by the head of the executive to King Mohammed VI recognising the North African country's initiative as the most feasible for resolving the Saharawi conflict. This diplomatic step led to a strengthening of diplomatic relations between the two countries and a formal invitation from the Alaouite monarch to Pedro Sánchez to a summit in Rabat in April 2022, at which the Roadmap to be followed in the coming years was detailed. This included a High Level Meeting (HLM) led by Pedro Sánchez and the Moroccan head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, in February 2023, at which dozens of strategic agreements were signed in various areas, further strengthening cooperation between the two nations. 

The relationship between Spain and Morocco has been one of close collaboration in recent years in all kinds of areas, political, social and economic, and this continues to be manifested in various ways.

Also, recently there have been statements by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, highlighting the great climate of cooperation between the two nations, ‘the best climate of cooperation ever achieved’, after the April 2022 summit between Pedro Sánchez and King Mohammed VI. 

José Manuel Albares himself described as ‘senseless’ the prolongation of the stalemate in the Western Sahara, calling for a negotiated solution now to prevent a situation that has been blocked for 50 years from continuing for another five decades. And, in line with Spain's official position, the intention is that it will end up advocating Morocco's regional proposal as the most feasible solution to the question of Western Sahara.