MADRID, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The status of the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish territories is not up for discussion, Spanish officials said \u200con Wednesday, after Morocco’s justice minister reiterated Rabat’s sovereignty claims over the cities.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s \u200cremarks by Abdellatif Ouahbi to Asharq TV marked the first time Rabat has publicly raised the contentious issue since Ceuta’s border \u200bcrisis in late July, during which an estimated 72,000 migrants briefly crossed into the enclave. At least 96 people died in the mass border rush.<\/p>\n
Ouahbi said his country always raised the issue of the cities’ status in negotiations with Spain, with a long-term goal of achieving a \u200cresolution through dialogue.<\/p>\n
Since its independence \u2060in 1956, Morocco has regarded Ceuta and Melilla as occupied by Spain, arguing sovereignty over them should ultimately be transferred to Rabat. Madrid considers \u2060them integral parts of its territory since the 17th and 15th centuries, respectively.<\/p>\n
“Ceuta and Melilla aren’t just Spanish; they’re super-Spanish and cannot be touched,” Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles told reporters in Ceuta \u200bwhen \u200basked about Ouahbi’s comments.<\/p>\n
“Any attack on Ceuta and \u200bMelilla is an attack on Spain \u200cas a whole. It must never happen again,” she added, referring to the border crisis.<\/p>\n
The Spanish government has largely praised Moroccan authorities for their cooperation in repatriating the migrants, blaming the crisis on people-smuggling mafias.<\/p>\n
In a separate statement, Spain’s Foreign Ministry said Spain’s territorial integrity “has not been, and will never be, discussed with anyone”.<\/p>\n
Separately, Morocco’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday it \u200chad stepped up security near the borders with Ceuta \u200band Melilla over online calls for another mass crossing \u200battempt on August 15, warning it \u200bwould prosecute organisers and participants.<\/p>\n
“The ministry calls on everyone to remain vigilant \u200cand responsible and not to be drawn \u200binto such suspicious and \u200bmisleading calls, given the risks they may pose to people’s lives,” it said in a statement, also urging Spain to accelerate the return of unaccompanied Moroccan minors in \u200bCeuta.<\/p>\n
Last week, Spanish Youth \u200cMinister Sira Rego said Madrid would evaluate Morocco’s offer to repatriate the children on \u200ba case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by David Latona and Joan Faus in Spain, Ahmed \u200bEl Jechtimi in Morocco; Editing by Andrei Khalip)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID, Aug 12 (Reuters) – The status of the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as Spanish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[27164,25800,2264,17,4571,26760,27344],"class_list":["post-69654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-abdellatif-ouahbi","tag-border-crisis","tag-morocco","tag-spain","tag-spanish-government","tag-spanish-officials","tag-spanish-territories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}