Morocco will face up in appropriate time any decision to impose visas for entry in Sebta and Mellilia
Morocco-Spain, Politics, 11/1/2001

In case Spanish authorities decide to impose an entry visa to the inhabitants of the Moroccan northern regions, wishing to enter Sebta and Melillia, Morocco will face up this decision in appropriate time, said Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa.

Moroccan authorities have not received from the Spanish government any official correspondence on this issue, that was circulated by some newspapers, Benaissa told the Moroccan house of representatives (lower house of the parliament) Wednesday during the question time.

"We do not deem that Sebta and Mellilia are part of Spain or that they must be submitted to the Shengen visa. Should this happen, we must discuss the issue at all levels, within the European Union, the United Nations, and why not raise the issue from the perspective of two Moroccan cities under occupation," Benaissa said.

Benaissa, who recalled that there exists no bilateral agreement or protocol on the issue of entry visa to Sebta and Mellilia, noted that on the morrow of the events of last September 11 (terror attacks against the United States), Spain tightened control on the natives of neighboring cities, who wish to enter the occupied Sebta and Mellilia.

"We spare no opportunity to draw Spanish authorities' attention to the fact that the issue of Sebta and Mellilia is ignored by the Spanish side in the frame of bilateral relations," he went on.

He recalled that the late King Hassan II had proposed to set up a (Moroccan-Spanish) reflection cell to seek a settlement to the issue of the two occupied cities and that Morocco has called Spain twice, in the frame of the United Nations, to follow the decolonization example of Hong King, deploring that Madrid had not made any response to these proposals.

Previous Stories:
  More than 240 Moroccan Illegal Immigrants Arrested in Sebta in Nine Days   (8/9/2001)
  Morocco convinced Spain will respond to morocco's claims over occupied towns   (2/7/2001)
  Over 31,000 Moroccans refused at Sebta Check Point   (12/11/2000)

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