Spain, Morocco agree to re-open enclave land borders

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Spain and Morocco have agreed to reopen Morocco's land borders with two Spanish enclaves, according to Spain's Foreign Minister. 

The two countries have "reached a definitive deal for the reopening of the land borders with Ceuta and Melilla in the coming days," Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told journalists on Wednesday in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, without specifying a date.

Such a move would help draw a line under a tense diplomatic standoff because of coronavirus restrictions that closed the crossings for the past two years.

Last year, the borders became hostage to a significant dispute when Madrid allowed the treatment of the leader of a Western Saharan independence movement in a Spanish hospital for Covid-19.

A few days later, a sudden influx of 8000 migrants of all ages, including about 1,500 minors, and even entire families, poured into Spain, swimming from Morocco using inflatable boats and dinghies around the borders fences or walking across at low tide into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa, which became along with Melilla enclave magnets for African migrants.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Western Sahara (Polisario Front) said it was halting contacts with the Spanish government, the Sahara Press Service reported in April.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez met with Moroccan King Mohammed VI and signed a joint declaration on the normalization of relations.

The Polisario Front confirmed in a statement published by the Sahara Press Service that it was halting contacts with the Spanish government over Sanchez’s support for the idea of Western Sahara’s limited autonomy, which is viewed by the front as an attempt to "annex" Western Sahara.

In early March, Washington expressed support for Morocco's autonomy plan in Western Sahara.

During a visit to Rabat, US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, said, "We continue to view Morocco's autonomy plan as serious, credible and realistic."