Aznar: Chirac suggested turning over Ceuta, Melilla...

[Agrippa]

Aznar: Chirac suggested turning over Ceuta, Melilla to Morocco
Spain Herald
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

French president Jacques Chirac suggested to former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar that Spain should turn over Ceuta, Melilla, and Spanish uninhabited islands along the north coast of Africa to Morocco in order to solve the Perejil Island crisis. Moroccan troops had illegally landed on Perejil, a Spanish possession near Ceuta, and raised that country's flag. Spanish troops reoccupied the island without violence. Aznar made the statement in a book titled Distant Neighbors: The Secrets of the Spain-Morocco Crisis by Ignacio Cembrero.
The book also includes a statement by former CNI (Spanish secret service) chief Jorge Dezcallar, who said that the Perejil Island crisis was "the tipping point that made Aznar jump into Bush's arms," since the US was the only country that supported Spain in its attempts to solve the dispute.

Cembrero's book analyzes the relationship between Spain and Morocco since King Mohammed VI acceded to the throne, and also includes the opinions of dozens of officials, diplomats, and business executives from Spain, Morocco, France, and Algeria. According to Cembrero, the Perejil crisis could have been solved in another way, "but they wanted to give the most attention-getting lesson possible to Morocco and its King." He quotes Aznar saying that the crisis "could not be explained without Chirac's practically unconditional support" for Mohammed VI.

Cembrero believes that the Zapatero government "has gone very far in its approach to Morocco," and sometimes Spain's relationship with Morocco "goes beyond" that country's relationship with France, "Morocco's principal European ally." In his opinion, drawing the maritime frontier between Spain and Morocco in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and the relationship between Ceuta and Melilla and their hinterlands, are the two principal problems between the countries.

Cembrero declared, "The most interesting question in upcoming years in Morocco is to learn whether the monarchy is capable of channeling Islamism," since, he said, "Moroccan society in its great majority agrees with the Islamists," and political Islamism is the strongest force in the country.
http://www.spainherald.com/3136.html

Interesting comments...

[Gil]

Pff... then Chirac also thinks that Bretagne/Brittany, Corsica, and overall the regions which have some degree of independent feeling, should be separated from France? Hypocrite.

[Menydh]

The towns already belonged to the Roman administration of Hispania. I suggest Chirac to turn Paris over to Algeria instead.

a statement by former CNI (Spanish secret service) chief Jorge Dezcallar, who said that the Perejil Island crisis was "the tipping point that made Aznar jump into Bush's arms," since the US was the only country that supported Spain in its attempts to solve the dispute.

The US only supported Spain in the conflict because they expected to get a return.

After the rejection of the Spanish people to the invasion of Iraq and the resulting change in government and direction in Spain, the US appointed Morocco a preferent allied.

the crisis "could not be explained without Chirac's practically unconditional support" for Mohammed VI.

Not that Chirac was doing the unexpected. French foreign policies have traditionally been the support of the Muslims against Spain's interests. Need I remind history and until recent times events?

[Lagun]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

Not that Chirac was doing the unexpected. French foreign policies have traditionally been the support of the Muslims against Spain's interests. Need I remind history and until recent times events?

What it makes even more incredible that Spanish Socialists keep on insisting in converting us into a French Sattelite.

[Menydh]

Not that the alternative to the Franco-German axis is more appealing.

Once any vestiges of true Social Conservatism have been wiped out by the anglo-supported Liberals, they have engaged in the task to carry on with this constructed idea of an Hispanosphere that should align with... the Anglosphere no less!

It is not for no reason that the good old traditions demanded that anything or anyone coming across the Pyrenees be shot down, before asking any questions.