RABAT (AFP) — Morocco on Friday recalled its ambassador to Spain after the Spanish royal palace confirmed that King Juan Carlos will next Monday and Tuesday visit the Ceuta and Melilla enclaves on the Moroccan coast.
"Morocco has decided to recall its ambassador for consultations for an unspecified duration," a government source told AFP, after Spain had confirmed the visit to the Mediterranean enclaves claimed by the north African kingdom.
Rabat has always considered Ceuta and Melilla to be part of its territory, although they have been under Spanish control for more than 400 years, and Morocco on Thursday expressed "strong rejection and clear disapproval."
A Madrid foreign ministry official said the royal visit was "institutional" and related to "internal politics," but Spanish leaders tend to stay away from the two densely populated urban enclaves because of political sensitivities.
Morocco's King Mohammed VI personally "decided to recall Omar Azziman, his Majesty's ambassador in Spain, for an indeterminate period" after the official and "regrettable" announcement of the trip, a foreign ministry statement said.
Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said Madrid disagreed with Rabat's move but was confident relations between the two countries would remain strong.
"The decision to recall the Moroccan ambassador is not an act which the Spanish government can agree with at all but we have good ties with Morocco which we are sure will continue," he told reporters in Algeciras.
A visit by Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to Ceuta and Melilla in 2006 irked Rabat. It was the first official visit by a Spanish prime minister to the two enclaves since the early 1980s.
Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Princess Letizia made their first official visit to Morocco Tuesday where they inaugurated a Spanish cultural center in the southern city of Marrakech.
The royal couple were accompanied by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos who said relations between Spain and Morocco have had a "satisfactory" evolution.
Relations between the two nations have improved since Zapatero came to power in 2004 after tension two years earlier when Morocco sent troops to the tiny disputed island of Perejil.
Zapatero's conservative predecessor Jose Maria Aznar sent forces to oust them.
Spanish politicians and the media welcomed news that the royal visit would go ahead.
The centre-left El Pais daily said it was "appropriate" and brought to an end "32 years of anomaly," referring to the fact that Ceuta and Melilla were the only two regions not yet visited by Juan Carlos since his accession.
The centre-right ABC daily criticised Rabat's "disproportionate" response and said it was "completely wrong" to speak like it did on Thursday of the enclaves as "despoiled Moroccan towns."
The opposition Popular Party also stressed the "immense importance" of the king's visit.
For its part, the government of Melilla issued a statement denying it had ever been part of Morocco and accusing Rabat of "interfering" in Spanish internal affairs by criticising the king's trip.
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