Morocco Wants Island Dispute with Spain Solved Peacefully
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Spanish soldiers unload supplies from a chopper on the disputed islet |
RABAT,
July 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Offering an olive branch
to Spain, Morocco
Friday pledged not to send its troops back to a tiny Mediterranean
island if Spain
withdraws its soldiers. However, an end to the row over the disputed
islet did not appear any closer, news agencies reported.
"I've
already made my promise and I repeat it now publicly: Morocco
does not intend to go back to the island once Spanish troops leave
it," Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa said before heading off to
France, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Madrid
sent its forces onto the island, known as Perejil in Spain
and Leila in Morocco,
to evict a handful of Moroccan soldiers who landed there last week and
claimed the islet, which Spain
says is part of its territory. The islet lies only 200 meters off the
Moroccan coast.
"The
fact is that there are military who are within our territorial waters.
The island is occupied by Spanish troops. They have to leave and we
will then begin the dialogue (process)," Benaissa told Spanish
radio.
In
addition to Leila, Spain
governs two densely populated coastal enclaves and claims sovereignty
over several other offshore isles.
It
was not immediately clear whether Benaissa was calling on Spain
to withdraw its forces from the enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla.
Spanish
Foreign Minister Ana Palacio on Thursday said Spain was ready to pull its troops if Rabat committed to
returning to the "status quo."
Palacio,
said once all troops were withdrawn, Madrid was ready to discuss
anything except the status of Ceuta and Melilla, the two enclaves on
the North African coast, occupied by Spain.
There
are concerns in Spain that the dispute over Perejil could be a prelude
to Moroccan demands for a full Spanish withdrawal.
The
row is only the latest between Morocco
and Spain,
which clashed over clandestine immigration, fishing rights and the
disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Talks
will be held on the crisis in Brussels Monday, July 22, during a
monthly meeting of EU Foreign Ministers, which Benaissa will attend
after a stopover in Paris.
Sources
say he will also meet with European Commission President Romano Prodi
Monday. A Prodi spokesman said he did not "and will not"
take a position on the island's judicial status.
"International
law offers a number of possibilities to settle this disagreement
peacefully," the spokesman said.
Benaissa
is to give a news conference in Paris at 1600 GMT Friday to explain
his country's position in the row, severely hampered relations between
the cross-Mediterranean neighbors.
Several
EU states believed the commission went too far last week when it
demanded that Morocco
immediately withdraw its troops.
Highlighting
the end of the colonial era, Benaissa Thursday called on Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar to stand down. "If Aznar wants us to
take him seriously, he must withdraw his troops not only from Leila
island but from all Moroccan coasts," he said.
In
an interview with radio station Cadena Ser, Benaissa demanded
"mutual respect" from Spain,
saying that the Morocco
"of the Spanish civil war (era) no longer exists.
"Today
we live in a new Morocco...
we are in a new democratic process. Spain
has to respect who we are at the beginning of the 21st century,"
he said.
On
Friday, a Spanish military helicopter landed on the island to deliver
several large crates of supplies for its troops.
In
Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed both Morocco
and Spain to
resolve the dispute over the 13.5-hectare (33-acre) island peacefully.
"They
need to resolve it through dialogue. They need to return to the status
quo ante and engage in a dialogue that can make it possible to resolve
these underlying issues," said Boucher, AFP reported.
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