Another Moroccan minister claims Ceuta and threatens Spain: "We will not retreat an inch from our territory"

The Minister of Public Works and Water of Morocco, Nizar Baraka, has once again claimed Rabat's position on Ceuta this Thursday and has made it clear that the Moroccan Government does not contemplate renouncing its territorial aspirations over the autonomous city.

Baraka spoke during a rally of the Istiqlal party, of which he is secretary general, amid tension with Spain after the massive entry of migrants into Ceuta at the end of July. The Moroccan leader has raised what response his country should give to Spain after Pedro Sánchez's Government has placed territorial integrity and national sovereignty among its red lines.

The minister has defended that the bilateral relationship remains important and has defined Spain as an “essential partner” for Morocco. However, he has accompanied that consideration with an unequivocal territorial claim: “We will not retreat a single inch of our national territory.”

Baraka's words come just one day after Sánchez's appearance in Congress to explain the Ceuta crisis. The President of the Government defended maintaining a policy of “good neighborliness” with Rabat, although he acknowledged that the relationship with Morocco will have to adopt a different approach after what happened during the migratory crisis.

Sánchez also assured that, if investigations show Morocco's involvement in the massive entry, Spain will act accordingly. The president insisted, however, that currently “there is no evidence” that allows directly attributing the organization of the events to the neighboring country.

Baraka's statement joins other recent interventions by members of the Moroccan Government in which Ceuta and Melilla have been claimed. Among them, that of the Minister of Religious Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq, stands out, who, before Mohamed VI, even referred to the “liberation” of both cities.

The statement by the Minister of Public Works thus once again highlights the contradiction between the will to maintain Spain as a strategic partner and the persistence of Rabat's territorial claims, at a particularly delicate moment in relations between both countries, and in which in any case