Spain PM Pedro Sánchez in Morocco to mend ties after Western Sahara shift

Relations between the two countries separated by the Strait of Gibraltar were severely frayed last April

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is set to meet with Moroccan King Mohammed VI on April 7 during a two-day visit to Rabat that seeks to mark an easing of diplomatic tensions centred on Morocco's disputed region of Western Sahara.

The King will invite Mr. Sánchez and his family to share in the Iftar meal to break the day’s fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to a Spanish government official not authorised to be named in media reports.

Spain’s government calls the meeting an opportunity to open a “new stage” in ties with Morocco based on “mutual respect,” but also to discuss "restraint from any unilateral action to honour the importance of all that we share and to avoid future crises.”

Relations between the two countries separated by the Strait of Gibraltar were severely frayed last April. Morocco was angered by Spain allowing the leader of the pro-independence movement for Western Sahara to receive medical treatment for COVID-19 at a Spanish hospital on request by Morocco's neighbour Algeria, an ally of pro-independence Sahrawis.

Morocco responded by loosening its border controls around Spain’s North Africa enclave of Ceuta, provoking the unauthorised crossing of thousands of young Moroccans and migrants from other African countries.

The mood did not improve until last month, when Mr. Sánchez took the surprising decision to alter Spain’s long-standing position on Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. In a letter to King Mohammed, Mr. Sánchez backed Morocco’s plan to give more autonomy to Western Sahara as long as it remains unquestionably under Moroccan grip.

The Spanish leader called Rabat’s proposal “the most serious, realistic and credible” initiative for resolving the decades-long dispute over the vast territory — that’s largely barren but rich in phosphates and faces fertile fishing grounds in the Atlantic Ocean — which Morocco annexed in 1976. Morocco, in turn, sent back its ambassador to Spain 10 months after he was recalled.