The Polisario Front warned Spain on Wednesday that once Morocco manages to consolidate its occupation of Western Sahara, “the next target will be the Canary Islands” unless Spain puts an end to it and does not allow it to continue setting its agenda as it has done in recent years.
This is the message that the representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdallah Arabi, wanted to convey, one day before Madrid hosts the 13th high-level meeting (RAN) between Spain and Morocco.
Elaraby stressed that half a century after the Spanish withdrawal and the Moroccan occupation, the Sahrawis have “sufficient experience to be able to reasonably warn Spain that if it does not put an end to Morocco’s expansionist claims, then once the occupation of Western Sahara is consolidated, the next target will be the Canary Islands.”
He also reminded the government that “despite the evasion of responsibilities it tried to do through the Tripartite Madrid Agreements” signed on November 14, 1975, it “still represents the administrative authority of the territory today” and gave as an example that “Spain continues to manage the airspace of Western Sahara.”
Regarding the summit that will be held on Thursday in Moncloa, he expressed his conviction that “Morocco will impose the agenda and agreements according to its exclusive needs and interests.”
Elaraby pointed out that nearly four years after the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, “in March 2022, exploded the largest consensus in Spanish foreign policy to date” with his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan in Western Sahara, “Morocco continues to set the times and the direction of relations, which should be considered to what extent they are strategic for Spain.”
On the other hand, with regard to the Sahara, the Polisario representative stressed that the summit “will be held in a completely different context from its predecessor, as it is the first to be held after the historic rulings issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union on October 4, 2024.”
Then he stated that “the court recognized the separate and distinct status of the territory of Western Sahara compared to Morocco and the absence of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, considering that the person who has the right to self-determination over the territory is the Sahrawi people.”
In this context, Elaraby explained that the Polisario Front “will remain vigilant to any agreements reached in the regional area due to their potential impact” on the former Spanish colony.
He warned that if this happened, the Polisario Front “will take all means available to it to defend the legitimate interests of the Sahrawi people by virtue of its status as a legitimate representative.”