Saturday, November 03, 2007

The King's visit

The Moroccan Government is apparently incensed by the official announcement on Friday that the proposed visit by His Majesty, King Juan Carlos I on the 5th and 6th of November to the two Spanish occupied  cities of Ceuta and Melilla will go ahead. 

From Spain's point of view the visit, which follows the one by Jose  Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last year,  is " logical and  natural " .  Spain feels that it would serve to establish mechanisms of collaboration  between Spain and Morocco to both improve the relations  between the two countries. 

The Morrocan Government says that the decision to go ahead with the visit has been taken after very high instructions (sic) from His  Majesty, King Mohamed IV to the Spanish Government telling them to cancel.

Morrocco disputes the fact that Ceuta and Melilla are Spanish in the same way that Spain disputes the fact that Gibraltar is British. I'm afraid Spain, that you really can't have it both ways.

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