Spain and Morocco were under growing international pressure on Thursday to peacefully resolve a spat over a tiny Mediterranean islet, after Rabat described Spanish troops’ eviction of a handful of its soldiers as a ”declaration of war”.
A State Department representative said Deputy US Secretary of State Richard Armitage had made numerous phone calls to the Spanish and Moroccan foreign ministers overnight seeking to mediate, as tensions rose with Madrid’s dispatch of troops there.
”We have consulted closely with both sides in pursuit of diplomatic resolution to this issue,” the representative Richard Boucher said.
”We are trying to help the parties, our friends on both sides, work this out in a peaceful manner,” he said.
”Both Spain and Morocco are longstanding friends of the United States,” he said.
”All along we have consistently urged a peaceful settlement and a return to the situation of July 10.”
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan also stepped in to offer Madrid and Rabat his offices for talks, after the Spanish army surprised and evicted a handful of Moroccan soldiers early on Wednesday on the uninhabited islet which they had occupied a week ago.
”He regrets any unilateral action taken so far and hopes that both parties will adhere to their original undertaking to resolve the issue through peaceful means,” Annan’s representative said in a statement, adding that Annan has been in contact with leaders of both countries.
As their spat over the disputed island — which Spain calls Perejil and Morocco calls Leila — deepened, both sides rushed to the UN Security Council seeking understanding for their positions.
In a letter read to the Council by Moroccan Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Bennouna, Rabat described the Spanish action as ”rash and dangerous to the peace and security in a sensitive zone, so close to the Straits of Gibraltar.”
”It is the same as the reinforcement of a Spanish military presence over their colonial enclaves from another era, when Spain controlled the Moroccan coasts,” the letter read.
Inocencio Arias, the Spanish ambassador to the United Nations, presented the Spanish side of the dispute in a letter to the Security Council earlier in the day.
The status of the islet has been ambiguous since Madrid’s protectorate over most of the northern part of Morocco came to an end in 1956.
Madrid maintains that for the past 40 years both sides have adhered to an agreement not to occupy the 13,5-hectare isle, but Rabat says the question of ownership has never been settled.
Morocco says it sent its troops to the rocky outcrop on July 11 to set up an ”observation post” as part of a campaign to prevent terrorism and illegal immigration, one of the series of thorny issues which have marred ties with Madrid.
The stand off has escalated since Morocco sent its soldiers to the islet last week, with Madrid sending warships into the area and on Tuesday recalling its ambassador to Rabat over the issue.
While the dispute has caused international ripples, the international community has been divided over who to back.
Nato and the 15-member European Union have backed Spain, a member of both organisations.
The Arab League and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) have sided with Morocco.
Nato, which had described the dispatch of Moroccan troops to Perejil as an ”unfriendly act”, said on Wednesday it was satisfied by the ”return of the status quo”.
But the OIC, which counts Morocco among its 57 members, expressed ”great surprise and deep sadness at the latest developments” and called on Spain to pull out its forces immediately.
The Arab League also urged Madrid to withdraw its troops, with Secretary General Amr Mussa voicing ”deep regret at the use of force.”
The row is the latest in a string of disputes between Morocco and Spain, Rabat’s second-largest trading partner. In the past year they have also clashed over illegal immigration, fishing rights and the disputed territory of Western Sahara. – AFP
