This is the condition that Mohamed VI has set to reopen the customs of Ceuta and Melilla. It is now monitored from the Canary Islands
Pedro Sánchez has just returned from Morocco without a date to reopen the customs of Ceuta and Melilla, which have remained closed since 2018. On the Spanish side “everything is ready” but Rabat continues to block access “for technical reasons.” Spain has unblocked the transfer of the management of the Sahara airspace as a counterpart.
The Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, has expressed her country’s “commitment” to opening them soon. “There will be more meetings. We are committed to it,” she said in the last few hours.
Pedro Sánchez has acknowledged that on the Moroccan side, there are still issues to resolve, but in no case are there obstacles of a political or legal nature.
As Confidential Digital has learned from diplomatic sources, Sánchez has unblocked the transfer to Morocco of the management of the airspace of Western Sahara. It is the condition that Mohamed VI has set to reopen precisely the customs of Ceuta and Melilla.
Last June, Rabat received confirmation from Moncloa that Spain was going to stop this transfer. An agreement that Pedro Sánchez himself had reached with Mohamed VI only four months before, in February of last year.
The Government decided to stop, due to the early elections and the early end of the legislature, the transfer to Morocco of the management of the Sahara airspace that Spain now controls from the Canary Islands. A change in position caused an increase in pressure from Rabat on Ceuta and Melilla last summer.
Now managed from the Canary Islands
For decades, the airspace of the Sahara has been managed from the Canary Islands, as established by the International Civil Aviation Organization of the UN. Management is carried out by ENAIRE, a public company attached to the Ministry of Transport. And Spain controls it de facto, due to the State status that the Protectorate exercises over the territory.
Within the framework of Sánchez’s new relations with Morocco, Moncloa acknowledged a few months ago that it had begun talks with Rabat for the transfer of the management of airspace in Western Sahara and coordination between both parties to achieve greater security. in connections and technical cooperation.
It fails to comply with international law
Furthermore, the Government knows that Spain is the administrative power, not the owner, of the Sahrawi airspace. Therefore, for international legality, Spain does not have any authority to decide whether or not to hand over management to Morocco even though Pedro Sánchez has promised it to Mohamed VI.
The airspace of the Sahara belongs to the FIR/UIR (Upper Flight Information Region) of the Canary Islands Air Control Center since the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), which controls air traffic in this area, in the same way in it is carried out in the rest of the sectors of the airspace designated to that Regional Directorate of the Canary Islands of ENAIRE, without any difference.
Morocco’s illicit drones
According to international legality, the management of the airspace of the occupied Sahara corresponds to Spain as the administrative power. However, Morocco has used this space illicitly, in recent years, also with drones.
It controls without right, de facto, the part of the Sahara illegally occupied until now. As an example, in December 2021, a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III of the Qatari Air Force flew over Sahrawi airspace and landed at the Laayoune airport.
This specific aircraft (flight code LHOB250), used to transport heavy military equipment, already attracted the attention of the Italian press in June 2022 for its continuous flights of a “secret” nature.
Likewise, satellite images from Google Maps show Moroccan fighter jets parked at the Laayoune airport.
