Morocco complains to Security Council about Spain's invasion of islet

Morocco called, in a memo to the UN Security Council, Spain's dawn invasion on Wednesday of the Mediterranean islet of Leila a "thoughtless and dangerous" act in a sensitive area in the Gibraltar strait.

The memo -- handed over Wednesday afternoon by Morocco's permanent delegate to the UN, Mohamed Bennouna, to the chairman of the Security Council-- stressed the attack against a Moroccan territory is condemnable not only from the point of view of international law but also from the point of view of practices of international relations between civilized nations.

Morocco sees that only the immediate withdrawal of Spanish occupation forces from the tiny island will enable the two countries resume dialogue in order to restore relations of cooperation, friendship and good neighborliness.

The memo further denounces as "a violation of the United Nations charter" Spain's armed attack at a time Morocco was repeatedly calling for dialogue to find an appropriate way out, in the respect of the spirit of friendship, neighborliness and cooperation treaty signed between the two countries in 1991.

Morocco further brushes aside Spanish accusations of pursuing "a fait accompli policy" and explained that it merely dispatched a surveillance unit on an islet that has never been part of the Moroccan-Spanish territorial dispute. Furthermore, the memo goes on, Spain has never laid any claim on the territory, which is a rock located on Moroccan internal waters and, as such, cannot be considered Terra Nullius.

Morocco recalls that since Morocco recovered the tiny island with the proclamation of the kingdom independence in 1956, only goats were taken to graze there by Moroccan shepherds and the kingdom has, from time to time and whenever necessary, deployed light surveillance units.