Pro-separatists Catalan MPs seek to mar Morocco-Spanish relations, Minister

The Catalan deputies that were sent home from the Moroccan southern city of Laayoune wanted to mar relations between Morocco and Spain through triggering bad incidents, Minister Delegate for Foreign Affairs, Taib Fassi Fihri, said in Cordoba, southern Spain, Wednesday.

"They seek to mar relations between Morocco and Spain, but for us it's a matter of principle not of opportunity" he told the press, affirming that the same principles are "valid for everybody."

The local authorities of Laayoune have sent home, earlier today, five Catalan activists "hostile to Morocco and its territorial integrity," and known for their staunch support to the Algerian-backed separatist movement "Polisario" that claim the separation of the Moroccan Sahara (southern provinces) from the rest of the country.

Fihri said "any self-respecting country would not welcome, on its own territory, persons who misshape the truth and tend to participate in a campaign that is totally hostile to its interests."

"A number of other delegations came (to Morocco) and acted freely. We agree on an agenda, the themes to be debated and the meetings," he continued, adding that Morocco and Spain have agreed on the future visit of a parliamentary delegation to the Moroccan Sahara.

The minister was echoed by a visiting delegation of MPs from the House of Advisors who invited their Spanish peers to visit the region to discover the real situation "away from campaigns aiming at hoaxing the international opinion conducted by elements hostile to the kingdom."

This is the third incident of the kind in a single week. Moroccan authorities expelled in two separate incidents a Spanish journalist for "false statements" as well as a Pro-Polisario delegation of the Federation for the defense of Sahrawi people.

These incidents come in the aftermath of the events that occurred late May between local police and some individuals who made "provocative acts" in a bid to force penitentiary authorities "cancel their decision of transferring an inmate sentenced for drug smuggling and organisation of illegal emigration."