Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is arriving today in Rabat on a two-day visit that seeks to offset diplomatic tensions between the two neighbors after nearly a year of standstill.
Pedro Sanchez and his family will arrive at the royal palace at about 5:30 pm in the evening before meeting with King Mohammed VI for Iftar.
The last Spanish officials to be invited to King Mohammed VI’s iftar table were monarchs Felipe VI and Letizia.
“Inviting someone from outside to such an event is a very strong sign of friendship on the part of King Mohamed VI,” Spokeswoman of the Spanish government Isabel Rodríguez told Spanish media.
The official meeting between the Moroccan king and the Spanish prime minister will last until 9 pm, with the possibility of Pedro Sanchez giving his press statement to the media in the evening.
Sanchez is accompanied by his foreign affairs ministerJosé Albares who is set to meet with his counterpart Nasser Bourita.
Morocco is now seeking a strategic shift in Spanish foreign policy that would ensure long-term support for the autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
King Mohammed said last year that his country will not sign any economic partnerships with countries that oppose Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
In his Green March speech of November 2021, the sovereign said the country would not accept trade agreements that do not extend to Western Sahara.
“I wish to tell those with ambiguous or ambivalent attitudes, that Morocco will not have any economic or commercial transaction with them in which the Moroccan Sahara is not included,” he said on the 46th occasion of the Green March.
Sanchez’s surprising shift from decades of supporting the United Nations-backed referendum to recognizing Morocco’s autonomy plan has wedged relations with Spanish political parties.
His socialist party received no backing from any other party in Spain’s Parliament, which accused him of having betrayed the Sahrawi people. Sanchez responded to accusations saying he is working with Spain’s national interest in mind.
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