The US praises the "stability" that Morocco brings to the Middle East on the second day of the massive arrival of migrants to Ceuta

In the foreground, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday. POOL / Reuters

Morocco garnered high-profile public praise for its role in the Middle East on Tuesday from the Administration of US President Joe Biden. The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, expressed by telephone to his Moroccan counterpart, Naser Burita, that Morocco has a "key" role in promoting stability in the Middle East, according to the State Department in a statement. The news was released the same day that Spain was trying to cope with the massive arrival of irregular migrants, some 8,000, who found free access to Ceuta from the neighboring Moroccan town of Fnideq, old Castillejos.

Biden's support for Morocco is decisive both inside and outside the country. Blinken's eulogy hints at the policy Biden intends to follow regarding the landmark measure that his predecessor Donald Trump decreed on December 10, when he had only six weeks left as president. That day the then president announced in a tweet that he decreed the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. He did so outside the UN, the body that has supervised peace between the parties since 1991 and has since tried to forge a mutually accepted agreement. At the same time, Rabat was undertaking diplomatic relations with Israel, something that did not please a large part of Moroccan society, which was very supportive of the Palestinian cause.

For internal consumption, the Moroccan authorities will also appreciate the gesture of the United States, since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel becomes more difficult to explain after Israel's offensive against the Gaza Strip, with more than 200 deaths in just ten days. The largest demonstrations in Morocco have always been in support of Palestine. And for decades they have been fostered by the regime itself. Now, public opinion may be upset. But public opinion in Morocco does not usually pose great problems.

So far, Biden has not officially ruled on the measure adopted by Trump, despite the fact that a group of 27 senators (13 Republicans and 14 Democrats) wrote in February a letter to the Democratic president in which they asked him to reverse the decision. Trump and push for a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, something that Rabat refuses. But Biden, with his inaction, is accepting Trump's move, in a similar way to what happens in the Middle East after Trump's turn of the screw by recognizing the city as the capital of the Jewish state and moving his Embassy to the city, in addition to supporting Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, occupied since 1967.

Trump's decision on the Sahara was decisive in the relations between Morocco and Spain.

That same day, Morocco suspended the bilateral summit or High Level Meeting (RAN) that was scheduled to be held in Rabat on December 17.

From then on, Morocco redoubled pressure on Spain to follow in Trump's footsteps.

And he raised the pressure on Germany, as the engine of the European Union, which was in favor of a "just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution under the mediation of the United Nations" in a statement on the day of the US announcement.

Derived from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Now, therefore, the problem of Western Sahara is added that derived from the Israeli conflict. The United States is interested in Morocco providing "stability" in the Middle East by establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, although most of its public opinion may be against it. Morocco has the explicit support of the world's leading power in the “existential” question of the Sahara. And the European Union is under more pressure than ever from Morocco. The reception of Brahim Gali, secretary general of the Polisario Front, in a hospital in Logroño registered on April 18, only came to put the icing on the cake in a context that was strained on December 10 with Trump's decision.

But good bilateral relations don't go back to Trump's tenure. When it became independent from France in 1956, Rabat opted for the US in an attempt to distance itself from its arch-rival Algeria, which fell into the orbit of the Soviet Union. The link was strengthened thanks to the Cold War and the important geostrategic role that the Maghreb country plays in the area: it is the key to access to the Mediterranean, where the United States has several military, naval and air bases. For similar reasons, Morocco has the same strategic importance for the United States as Egypt, another privileged partner of Washington and recipient of important military aid, on the other side of the Mediterranean.

Although Trump black-and-white that bond forged over the years, reorienting him to support his Middle East peace plan rather than to defend the Moroccan Sahara - the consideration -, several of his predecessors also had visible nods of approval towards Rabat. The role of the United States was key in the resolution of the conflict on the island of Perejil, in 2002. The mediation of the then Secretary of State, Colin Powell, was sought from both shores. In 2013, the Hashemite kingdom scored a great victory thanks to President Barack Obama, who recognized the viability of the unilateral plan for the autonomy of Western Sahara presented by Morocco in 2007.

Obama received King Mohamed VI in the White House in November of that year, to settle the attempted diplomatic crisis between the two countries that had originated in April of that year, when the US delegation to the United Nations tried to add a mechanism of control of human rights to the MINURSO, the UN mission for the referendum in Western Sahara. The US initiative was frustrated by pressure from Morocco, which, aware of its strategic importance, has always emerged victorious from its emboldening (and not only against Washington, but also before the UN, the EU, with the negotiation of fishing quotas; the former metropolis France and Spain). As evidenced by the meeting between Obama and King Mohamed VI, the relationship between the two countries has always been close, long before Trump's appearance on the scene.

In Spain, however, the extreme right always benefits from migratory tensions. Now, it is up to Madrid and Rabat to calm the waters again. Under the watchful eye, probably, of the United States embassy in Madrid.