Spanish-Moroccan crisis: the plot, the puppets and the show

The much manipulated phrase "foreign policy is a matter of State" has become a truism. Nobody doubts it, although all countries and rulers interpret it according to their convenience. In dictatorships, autocratic regimes and monarchies of divine right, those in power confuse themselves with the State, assume its functions and act according to it. In democracies, whether incipient or advanced, decisions concerning foreign affairs involve the State, yes, but they are often influenced, if not directly decided, by other political forces, pressure groups, financial lobbies or personalities in command and acting for puerile motives or ambitions of power. In the current Spanish-Moroccan crisis there is a little of this on both sides, which contributes to increase the confusion and the deep motives of the verbal fierceness we are witnessing.

On the Spanish side, the public hullabaloo oscillates between jingoism and the outstretched hand. The Minister of Foreign Policy, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, insists that it is a passing crisis, and that the channels of communication and the pertinent explanations of the issues at stake, in particular the Brahim Ghali case, have been made and listened to. Something that, on the other side of the Strait, is denied; the Moroccan ministerial counterpart, Nasser Bourita, says no, that they have not spoken since before the crisis, and that such communication is non-existent. 

It is not the same attitude that we observe on the part of the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who, taking advantage of the crisis, launches warning after warning with martial airs. "Spain is not to be trifled with; we will not tolerate the slightest blackmail"; or "we will use all means to maintain the territorial integrity of our country", which sounds like the drums of war. In the Ministry of the Interior of Fernando Grande Marlaska, more accustomed to border ups and downs, insists on lowering the tense tone and limiting it to local incidents. Both the Interior Minister and the heads of the police and the Civil Guard prefer to maintain the bridges of communication with the southern neighbor, although they have not approved at all the Moroccan measure of opening the doors for thousands of immigrants, sub-Saharan, Moroccans and minors, to flee in avalanche to settle in Ceuta and Melilla. 

The half-silence of President Pedro Sanchez on the serious political crisis between Spain and Morocco is very worrying. For while it is true that the head of the Government reaffirms the Spanish will to "settle the crisis as soon as possible", and continues to preach that Spain is the best partner Morocco has with the European Union, the facts for which he is primarily responsible indicate otherwise: the order for military deployment in Ceuta, his ostentatious trip to the two Spanish cities and his plea before the European Union summit asking for political assistance, have shown the lack of a coherent security and defense plan adapted to the new geopolitical and strategic situation in the Western Mediterranean region. The Spanish government seems to have no say in the global strategy in this region of the world. Not only does it keep alive the same geopolitical adversaries of yesteryear, France and Britain mainly, but it has managed to isolate itself from the U.S. deployment, putting at risk relations with its main ally in the Western camp. "It was the right time to propose a ten-year renewal of the strategic alliance with the United States, including the bases, and not just a one-year extension", a veteran socialist leader, expert in international relations, commented to ATALAYAR. The US does not see Spain as a faithful and secure ally.

On the other side of the Strait, this political crisis, with hints of a clash of strategic interests, is beginning to be somewhat confusing. State affairs, military policy, strategic issues and foreign policy are the exclusive privilege of the King, by tradition and because the Moroccan Constitution, endorsed by the entire political class and institutions, and with massive popular support, so states. But the inputs the King receives from his main advisors about this crisis vary in form and content. Hence we observe different tones, content and forms in the messages coming from Morocco. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, has chosen the hard line to lash out against the Spanish Executive, which he accuses of little less than complicity with "Morocco's adversaries", alluding to Algeria, and of turning a blind eye to the crimes of the Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali hospitalized in Logroño: "he is a rapist who has tolerated slavery, torture, war crimes and child soldiers, of which Spain is aware".  Behind the words of the head of Moroccan diplomacy, there is the baton of the royal adviser Fouad Ali el Himma, implacable with the northern neighbor. His opinion, no one has any doubt, has a determining weight in the decisions of King Mohamed VI. He is his main advisor, loyal and with a career of almost half a century at his side. 

However, other members of the royal entourage, some of them former students of the Royal College with Prince Sidi Mohammed, such as the head of the secret services Yassine Mansouri, the former ambassador to Spain Fadel Benyaich, the Rifian and former historian of the Kingdom Hassan Aourid, or the adviser for security and terrorism and Director General of Security Abdellatif Hammouchi, have a more nuanced view of the crisis. The current Moroccan ambassador in Spain, Karima Benyaich, called for consultations from Rabat in the middle of the crisis, agrees with the words of President Sanchez that what is at stake at this moment is "respect and trust", and although she maintains that the Spanish attitude of welcoming Brahim Ghali, for humanitarian reasons according to Madrid, "will have consequences", she shows herself as an authorized voice to speak about bilateral relations outside the official channel represented by Minister Nasser Bourita. The ambassador adds nuances with knowledge of the cause, and opens doors for the reestablishment of respect and trust. Something similar to that expressed by the Director of Political Affairs in the same Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rabat, Fouad Yazough, who asks the government of Pedro Sanchez to explain to the Spanish public opinion how and why he accepted the entry of Brahim Ghali in a public hospital, a fact in which, according to Yazough, four Algerian generals are involved. 

According to some leaks difficult to verify, but very plausible, King Mohamed VI summoned his three main advisors on the subject of Spain, in his palace in Fez, where he spent the month of Ramadan. Fouad el Himma, Yassine Mansouri and Abdellatif Hammouchi, presented their respective points of view on the scope of the crisis and the scenarios that are outlined to get out of it. If something has transcended to the specialized opinion is that while El Himma tightens the rope, Mansouri and Hammouchi are in favor of maintaining the bridges in their respective areas, services and anti-terrorism. 

The crisis has set in and will last. The skill of statesmen is not to let it fester, and to always leave some channels of communication open, even if only to reproach each other.