Mohamed VI invites Sánchez to the fast-breaking dinner this Thursday to normalize diplomatic relations

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, together with the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska (on the left of the image), during the meeting they held in November 2018 with King Mohamed VI of Morocco at the Royal Palace in Rabat .Ballesteros (EFE)

The King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, has invited the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to participate next Thursday in the

the dinner with which the fast is broken during Ramadan, according to Moroccan sources.

is the

main celebration of the day during the holy month of Muslims, so inviting a foreigner to participate is a sign of friendship.

Mohamed VI called Sánchez last Thursday to ask him to come personally to Rabat to stage the reconciliation between the two countries, after a diplomatic crisis that has lasted ten months.

And he conveyed his “high appreciation” for the content of the letter that the Spanish president had addressed to him on March 14, in which he described the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara as the “most serious, realistic and credible” formula. to resolve the conflict in the former Spanish colony.

The call from the Alaouite monarch led to the suspension of the trip to Rabat that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was going to make that same day, who will accompany Sánchez on his visit this week.

The head of the Government also plans to meet on Thursday, for the first time, with the new president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo,

On the other hand, Spain has resumed the repatriation of immigrants to Algeria, according to government sources.

After two weeks of stoppage in returns, last Saturday, twenty Algerians who had entered Spain irregularly boarded a ferry in Almería to return to their country.

It is the first repatriation since, on the 18th, the Moroccan Royal House made public the letter sent by the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to Mohamed VI, in which he consecrated the turn of the Spanish position on the Sahara.

Since then, no return had been made, with the exception of the flight that on March 24 took the military officer Mohamed Benhalima to the Algerian town of Chlef, who through his YouTube channel had denounced cases of corruption in the Algerian army and who was denied political asylum in Spain.

Interior boarded several irregular immigrants on the same flight.

Government sources believe that the fact that Algiers has admitted to resuming repatriations is a good sign, although tensions in relations between the two countries are not ruled out.

On the other hand, Algerian diplomatic sources warn that those repatriated on the flight with the military and those embarked on the Almería ferry were part of a group of 26 immigrants whose return had been agreed upon before the letter was known on March 18.

The suspension of repatriations would thus remain in force, although it would not be retroactive.

The North African country called its ambassador to Spain, Said Musi, for consultations on March 19, and nothing indicates that his return is near.

In addition, it has denied the expansion of regular flights between the two countries, once the restrictions imposed by the pandemic have been relaxed, so these will continue to be limited to four weekly, all to Algiers: three by Vueling from Barcelona;

and one from Iberia from Madrid.

Other European countries —such as the United Kingdom, Belgium or Italy— have managed to increase their frequencies.

But the most worrying thing for the interests of Spain has been the announcement by Toufik Hakkar, executive president of Sonatrach, the Algerian hydrocarbon giant, that his country will keep the price of gas frozen for all its clients, with the exception of Spain, with whom intends to review it.

Government sources indicated that the current contract with Naturgy already provided for a review of gas prices, which have increased by 500% in recent months.

Another thing is if this review is more onerous for the Spanish company due to the diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

Meanwhile, the reconciliation of Spain with Morocco has resulted in a resumption of repatriation flights for immigrants arriving by boat to the Canary Islands.

During the pandemic, repatriations were suspended and the Moroccan authorities only accepted, between December 2020 and April 2021, flights from the archipelago to El Aaiún (Western Sahara), as a form of tacit recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the capital of the former Spanish colony.

The Government trusts that they can now also be extended to Casablanca and Agadir, which would triple the number of repatriations, estimated at around 80 weekly.

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