RABAT —
Maritime traffic between
Spain and
Morocco is set to resume Tuesday following
the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Rabat’s
transport ministry said.
اضافة اعلان
Embroiled in a dispute with Spain over the
territory of Western Sahara, Morocco upheld the blockade between some of the
largest ports on the Mediterranean for over two years.
The busy, but short, 14km route across the
Strait of Gibraltar had originally been shut in March 2020 when Morocco severed
transport links with
Europe over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The maritime borders reopened last summer —
but connections between Tangiers and Spain’s Algeciras and Tarifa ports have
remained cut.
“Shipping companies will gradually resume
their passenger services between the Moroccan ports of Tangier Med and
Tangier-City and the Spanish ports of Algeciras and Tarifa,” the transport
ministry said in a statement.
While passenger and shipping traffic is
scheduled to resume on Tuesday, motorists will have to wait until April 18.
In March, Spain and Morocco began repairing
diplomatic ties after Madrid ended a decades-long stance of neutrality over the
disputed territory of Western Sahara and agreed to publicly support Rabat’s
autonomy plan for the region.
After Spanish colonial forces withdrew in
1975, Morocco fought a bitter war with the Polisario independence movement
before reaching a ceasefire in 1991, on the promise of a referendum on
self-determination.
But in November 2020, the Polisario declared the ceasefire null
and void after Morocco sent in troops to forcibly reopen a highway running
through Western Sahara to neighboring Mauritania.
Spain’s decision to recognize Morocco’s claims to the
territory infuriated regional rival
Algeria, which has long backed the
Polisario and also supplies large quantities of natural gas to Spain.
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