EU Hails Positive Development in Morocco-Spain Ties

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a news conference in Siauliai airbase, Lithuania July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a news conference in Siauliai airbase, Lithuania July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
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EU Hails Positive Development in Morocco-Spain Ties

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a news conference in Siauliai airbase, Lithuania July 8, 2021. (Reuters)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks during a news conference in Siauliai airbase, Lithuania July 8, 2021. (Reuters)

The European Union hailed on Monday the positive development in the ties between Morocco and Spain.

“The EU welcomes any positive development between its member states and Morocco in their bilateral relations, which can only be beneficial for the implementation of the Euro-Moroccan partnership,” said Nabila Massrali, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Last week, Spain told Morocco that it regards its autonomy proposal for Western Sahara as “serious, credible and realistic.”

The language reflected a shift in Madrid's policy towards the dispute in Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco considers its own, but where an Algeria-backed independence movement demands a sovereign state.

The EU reaffirmed its support for the efforts of the UN secretary-general for a “just, realistic, pragmatic, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution to the Western Sahara issue,” Massrali told reporters on Monday.

Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Luis Planas commended on Monday the return of good diplomatic ties with Morocco, saying that restoring relations is “excellent news.”

Planas, also a former Spanish ambassador to Morocco, told Spanish national radio RNE that “relations of trust with our neighbor Morocco, with which we have friendship and strategic relations, must be preserved.”

In a letter addressed to King Mohammed VI, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchezcalled Rabat’s proposal “the most serious, realistic and credible” initiative for resolving the decades-long dispute.

Miguel Angel Moratinos, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General holding the post of High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), said both countries have taken a historic step in this regard.



Residents Leave Homes in Jenin as Israeli Raid Continues

Israeli army vehicles on a damaged road as Palestinians (rear) leave Jenin refugee camp on the third day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 23 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli army vehicles on a damaged road as Palestinians (rear) leave Jenin refugee camp on the third day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 23 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
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Residents Leave Homes in Jenin as Israeli Raid Continues

Israeli army vehicles on a damaged road as Palestinians (rear) leave Jenin refugee camp on the third day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 23 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH
Israeli army vehicles on a damaged road as Palestinians (rear) leave Jenin refugee camp on the third day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 23 January 2025. EPA/ALAA BADARNEH

Israeli drones fitted with loudspeakers ordered people to leave their homes in Jenin on Thursday, residents said, as the military demolished a number of houses on the third day of a major operation in the West Bank city.
The operation, involving large columns of vehicles backed by helicopters and drones, was launched in the first week of a ceasefire in Gaza that saw the first exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails since a brief truce in November 2023.
Israeli officials said the Jenin operation was aimed at what the military said were Iranian-backed militant groups in the refugee camp adjacent to the city, a major hub for armed Palestinian groups for years.
"We need to be prepared to continue in the Jenin camp that will bring it to a different place," Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, the head of the Israeli military, said in a statement.
Armored bulldozers have dug up roads and hundreds of people left their homes in the camp, after residents said they were ordered to evacuate, Reuters reported.
"Yesterday, we did not want to leave, we were at home," said 16-year-old Hussam Saadi. "Today, they sent down a drone to our neighborhood, telling us to leave the camp and that they will blow it up."
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Overnight on Wednesday, Israeli troops killed two armed men barricaded inside a building in Burqin, outside Jenin, after a gunfight. The two were suspected of carrying out an attack near the Palestinian village of al-Funduq earlier this month, in which three Israelis were killed.
Both were claimed by the armed wing of Hamas, which has a strong presence in the refugee camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled, or were forced, from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war.
Overall since the start of the operation, 12 Palestinians have been killed and 40 more wounded, Palestinian health officials said.
The raid, the third major operation by the Israeli military in Jenin in under two years, drew warnings from France and Jordan against an escalation in the West Bank, which has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza.