Étiquette : Spain

  • CNI alerted that Morocco used Ceuta crisis to force a change on Sahara

    CNI alerted that Morocco used Ceuta crisis to force a change on Sahara

    Spain, CNI, secrets services, Morocco, Ceuta, migration, Frente Polisario, Western Sahara, Brahim Ghali, Algeria

    The intelligence services concluded that the massive arrival of immigrants in May was a « pressure » tool of Morocco against the Spanish government to push a change in the stance of the former colony.

    New information from the CNI (National Intelligence Center). State security forces were overwhelmed on May 18, 2021, when more than 8,000 people irregularly crossed the Ceuta border. The images of young people running around the fence to get around it and swimming with plastic bottles to reach Spanish territory went around the world and called into question diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries. As El Pais advances, after more than a year of this migratory crisis, it is known that the CNI sent several reports in which it delved into relations with Rabat after the arrival in Spain of the leader of POLISARIO Brahim Gali, and the position of Morocco.

    The document reflects that Spanish Intelligence warned the PM that the arrival of the thousands of Moroccans was part of a strategy of « pressure » by Morocco and that it was in line with his « aggressive » speech so that Government turn in its strategy of reconnaissance of Western Sahara. It was precisely in March of this year that the Government relaxed its shielding of the former colony and considered the autonomy of Western Sahara as a « realistic » resolution.

    The Ceuta crisis left Government’s foreign strategy untouched, with the departure of Arancha González Laya and the cooling of the borders with Ceuta and Melilla (already hermetic after the pandemic). Just when relations began a thaw phase, with the announcement of the autonomy plan for the former colony, it was learned that the devices of the PM Pedro Sánchez, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, and the former FM, Arancha González Laya had been infected with the Pegasus spy program. The controversy exploded in the air after the accusations of the independentists parties against the Government when finding remains of the same software on their mobiles, but the NGO Amnesty International had already set precedents on Morocco by reporting that in the summer of 2021 it used the program to monitor 50,000 phones.

    Morocco’s interest in Western Sahara is historical and just at the time of Ghali’s arrival, he was immersed in an international strategy to achieve recognition. As the CNI detailed to the Government, Morocco had worked to attract the US President, Joe Biden, to recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over the former colony, as Donald Trump did. This target remained, however, relaxed with Spain for enjoying mutual understanding at that time. However, the good harmony was broken with the arrival of Ghali, and he gave the starting signal to open a stage of pressure to later agree concessions.

    The CNI and Mohamed VI

    The CNI reports conclude that Mohamed VI was fully aware of this strategy, in which he was personally involved precisely because he considered that the arrival of the leader of POLISARIO had also been monitored from the highest Spanish institutions. Who was behind this plan was a close adviser to the king, Fouad Ali el-Himma, with whom the government sat down in April to settle the crisis together with the Moroccan foreign delegation.

    Robles takes refuge in the law

    The Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, has relied this Monday on the Law that regulates the National Intelligence Center (CNI) not to reveal whether the espionage services warned of movements by Morocco to force a change in Spain’s position regarding the Sahara Western. « Everything that the CNI does is secret and no demonstration can be made about it, » he said in an interview on Telecinco, regarding the information published this Monday by El País about the migratory crisis at the Ceuta de May of last year. In any case, the Minister of Defense has alluded to the « rigor » of all the actions of the CNI and has praised the « serious and rigorous » work of its more than 3,000 members, both inside and outside of Spain, and « always subjected to the legality ».

    Although she did not want to delve into this matter, she did point out that relations between Spain and Morocco « have taken a significant turn » and has maintained the need for Spain to have a good relationship with its neighboring countries, such as Morocco, Algeria, France, or Portugal.

    In addition, she has avoided pointing the finger at Morocco in the case of spying on mobile phones of members of the Government with the ‘Pegasus’ program -including her own- and has explained that in these cases it is very difficult to verify the authorship of the intrusions and they must make « unproven » accusations. « I don’t know who was, » she assured, recalling that there is an open investigation at the National High Court and « prudence » advises not to make statements « lacking any evidence. »

    Voz populi, 06/06/2022

    #Spain #Morocco #Ceuta #CNI #WesternSahara #Algeria

  • Sanchez: Morocco, Qatar and Nigeria to seduce Biden

    Sanchez: Morocco, Qatar and Nigeria to seduce Biden

    Spain, Pedro Sanchez, Morocco, Qatar, Nigeria, Algeria, gas,

    The international agenda of the Moncloa has focused on meetings that will allow it to become independent of Russian and Algerian hydrocarbons. All ‘partners’ of the United States

    On June 14, the image of Pedro Sánchez approaching Joe Biden in the corridors of NATO headquarters as a « bilateral meeting » occupied all the news. A ‘rudeness’ that the president of Spain has been trying to amend for a year. The threat from Russia and the economic alerts makes the friendship of the US President more necessary than ever. Sánchez has opted to curry favor with Biden through an energy alliance with both the White House and his regional partners. « Spain wants to regain a privileged position in its relationship with the US, » says José María Peredo, professor of international relations at the European University. “The situation of the war in Russia is causing it to strengthen the geopolitical relationship as well as in the energy issue. In this scenario of interests, rather than values, energy is a key factor. Spain has an active role because it links the energy issue with its foreign policy interests”, adds the professor. The first is Morocco.

    The photo of last April 7 of Sánchez in Rabat with the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI. A handshake that evidenced PM’s change of position with Western Sahara. A decision that opened a diplomatic crisis with Algeria, the great supplier of gas to Spain through a gas pipeline. The Algerian malaise set off energy alarms during the gas price crisis after the invasion of Ukraine and the corresponding sanctions on the necessary Russian gas. Since this year, the US supplies 34.6% of all the natural gas that enters Spanish territory and reaches 13,103 gigawatt-hours (GWh), the largest amount of US gas in the history of the records of the Reserves Corporation Strategic Petroleum Products (CORES) dating back to 2004.

    A figure that far exceeds the 25% figure assumed by US methane carriers in the December 2021 hydrocarbon statistical bulletin. All eyes were on the US and Joe Biden. Morocco is the strategic ally of the US in North Africa and Algeria is Russia’s classic partner in that geographical area. In this context, from the sector they see it understandable that Joe Biden’s team is behind an improvement in relations between its two allies, Spain, and Morocco, during the crisis between the West and Russia. With this operation, Biden would achieve a better relationship between two ‘colleagues’ and ensure that he maintains his position as the largest gas supplier in Spain. “Spain has an active role because it links the energy issue with its foreign policy interests. The first thing we are going to do is disassociate ourselves from Russia and then we are going to diversify our hydrocarbon suppliers. This is where the change in the relationship with Algeria is interpreted in its approach to Morocco, the visit of Qatar and Nigeria”, points out José María Peredo.

    Qatar, a new partner

    The other nod to Biden from Spain came on May 18. A massive delegation landed in Spain accompanying the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamin Bin Hamad Al Thani. Qatar maintains this type of strategic dialogue with very few countries: France, Italy, UK, Japan, Turkey and China. But, above all, in the current geopolitical context after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the country dominated by the Al Thani family has positioned itself as one of the United States’ great Middle Eastern partners. « Qatar is the world’s second largest producer of natural gas, » recalled Pedro Sánchez’s team in their official statement after the meeting. But Spain, now, is not a preferred buyer for Qatar, as shown by Cores data. In the first quarter of 2022, even though natural gas imports are the highest for this period since 2008, arrivals from the Middle East (Qatar and Oman) have barely represented 3%, with a drop in deliveries from Qatar 67.4% between January and March.

    Pressure on Sánchez from Brussels

    The reactivation of Sánchez’s international agenda is also marked by pressure from Brussels to seek more allies to ensure supply. « The geopolitical situation and dependence on Russia for Europe’s energy supply is contributing to the escalation of gas and electricity prices, » recalls Carlos Solé, partner responsible for Energy and Natural Resources at KPMG in Spain. « The recommendations of the European Commission to curb the rise in prices point to an acceleration in the penetration of renewables and the energy transformation of the sector towards the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels and decarbonisation, the reduction of demand with the improvement of energy efficiency and the search for supply alternatives to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia », clarifies the KPMG partner.

    A friend in West Africa

    The last chapter of Sánchez’s agenda with Biden’s ‘partners’ has been this week with the visit to Madrid of the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. The first visit to Spain by a Nigerian head of state in the last 17 years. A meeting that served for Spain to smile at Nigeria as one of its main « and most reliable » energy suppliers -gas and oil-, and for Nigeria to approach its second largest client with its hydrocarbons. The great power of West Africa has become one of the countries that has most increased its shipments of gas carriers to Spanish ports, along with the United States, after the closure of one of the gas pipelines in Algeria.

    Nigeria started 2021 representing 7.9% of all the gas that entered Spain and, after the closure of the Maghreb pipeline in November, it rose to 17.4%. It is no coincidence that the US and Nigeria came to the rescue of Spain when Algerian gas stopped pumping due to its conflict with Morocco. Both countries maintain great bilateral relations. The relationship between Nigeria and the US is strategic for both parties, with the security component gaining weight and the importance of Nigerian oil and gas losing ground due to the exploitation of its own resources in the US. For its part, the US participates in surveillance and control tasks in the Gulf of Guinea through the “African Partnership Station” initiative and provides military, intelligence, and anti-terrorism cooperation.

    Therefore, Pedro Sánchez has worked with great allies of Joe Biden in recent months and has managed to reduce his energy exposure to Russia and, above all, to Algeria. A diplomatic job that will end on June 29 with the NATO Summit in Madrid. A meeting where Pedro Sánchez and his team hope to turn that corridor conversation into a meeting with honors.

    Voz populi, Jun 05, 2022

    #Spain #Morocco #Qatar #Nigeria #Algeria #Gas #Joe_biden #USA

  • Feijóo dissociates himself from Sánchez’s « clandestine letter »

    Feijóo dissociates himself from Sánchez’s « clandestine letter »

    Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, PP, Pedro Sanchez,

    Feijóo holds surprise meeting with Morocco’s prime minister and dissociates himself from Sánchez’s « clandestine letter » on the Sahara

    The president of the Popular Party (PP) takes advantage of a congress in the Netherlands to transfer to Rabat that, if he governs, he will not assume Sánchez’s commitments without consensus

    The president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has arranged a surprise meeting with the PM of Morocco, Aziz Ajanuch, in Rotterdam, as confirmed by himself upon his arrival in the Dutch city. In a highly unusual bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Congress of the European People’s Party, Feijóo has assured that his intention is for Rabat to know what his position will be if he reaches the Government and is to address the issue of the Sahara within the resolutions of the UN and with the consensus that the PM, Pedro Sánchez, has not sought. Does not assume the Sánchez letter announced by Mohamed VI.

    Feijóo stands out from the letter in this way: « The problem of Western Sahara cannot be solved with a clandestine letter. We must put light on the problem of the Western Sahara, stenographers, transparency, and international agreements. That is exactly the opposite of what he [Sánchez] has done the Government. The only thing that the secrecy to solve an international problem causes more problems, more tensions, more uncertainty and less responsibility towards the Saharawi people, towards Morocco and towards the UN ».

    In exchange for not handing over the Western Sahara like Sánchez, Feijóo assumes a commitment and that is not to hide actions with POLISARIO from Morocco. « The first thing we have is to return again to seriousness in foreign policy. Foreign policy is not an occurrence. Foreign policy is not a necessity due to a breach, such as not notifying Morocco of an action with the leader of POLISARIO that enters Spain illegally, sponsored by the government. A government cannot introduce a citizen illegally into its territory, » he reproached.

    The fact that the leader of the opposition does not assume the commitments that Mohamed VI took for granted after receiving Sánchez’s letter may have future consequences both in relations with Morocco and with Algeria during an energy crisis. This meeting marks the international premiere of the PP leader who has filled his agenda in Rotterdam with other prime ministers from his political force and with the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen.

    « Power and counters »

    Feijóo has thus described what his policy with Morocco would be if he is PM: « What I can assure the Moroccan PM, first, that I am not going to deceive him, nor am I going to deceive my country. Second, that everything I am going to try to reach a consensus so that it has a vocation for permanence in the relations between Morocco and Spain, Spain, and Morocco, which are not the relations of a government that is there for a time, but rather the relations of two States. Third, to tell him very clearly that in the field of UN resolutions we can agree on many things ». On the other hand, « outside the UN resolutions, the pacts are not going to produce international effects. »

    « I am convinced that the Moroccan PM will understand me, because the important thing between two countries is that there are no deceptions, that there are no disloyalties and that there are no clandestine letters. We are going to do this clearly and with power and counters. And in the Lower Chamber », assured the head of the opposition.

    PP sources have assured at the end of the meeting that the Moroccan PM has extended an invitation to Feijóo to visit Morocco. « The president Feijóo has accepted and will try to include this visit on his agenda throughout this year, » they say in his surroundings.

    El Mundo, 31 mai 2022

    #Morocco #Spain #WesternSahara #PedroSanchez #Feijoo

  • Algeria: « honeymoon » with Italy as it cuts ties with Spain

    Algeria: « honeymoon » with Italy as it cuts ties with Spain

    Algeria, Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, gas,

    Abdelmajid Tebboune, the Algerian president, recalls from Rome that his country’s relations with his friends, such as Italy, are based on « trust and on the word given and that does not change ». He thus alludes to the turn of the Spanish Government on Western Sahara.

    The Algerian authorities do not reduce their irritation at the alignment of PM Pedro Sánchez with Morocco in the Western Sahara conflict. The Algerian president concluded a three-day state visit to Rome and Naples on Friday, veiledly comparing Italy’s fidelity in her friendship with Algeria to Spain’s alleged disloyalty. Algeria’s relations with his friends are fundamentally based on « trust and on the word given and that does not change, » Tebboune affirmed in the speech he gave last Thursday in Rome. « Any increase in production [of Algerian hydrocarbons] should be oriented, depending on demand, towards Italy, a friendly country, which could become a distributor for Europe, » he announced. Tebboune’s allusions to Spain highlight that Algeria’s anger with the Spanish government endures more than two months after, on March 18, a communique from King Mohamed VI revealed that Spain was renouncing its traditional neutrality in the conflict over Sahara and supports the solution advocated by Morocco to solve it.

    The Moroccan authorities found out about this radical change in Spanish foreign policy through the press, by closing the crisis with Morocco with that great concession, Pedro Sánchez opened another with Algeria. « The head of the [Spanish] government has broken everything with Algeria, » Tebboune lamented on April 23 in a television interview. The clash with the leading economic power in the Maghreb has become chronic and will probably last until the end of the legislature in Spain, according to forecasts by diplomats from both countries. Despite his repeated attempts, the FM, José Manuel Albares, has not been able to establish a dialogue with the Algerian diplomacy, although he asked Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the EU, for help.

    « As long as Sánchez is disavowed by Lower Chamber – and there have been three times already – on the Western Sahara, as long as this move of his policy supposes internal wear and tear for him, from Algiers they are not going to accept normalizing the relationship », affirms a European diplomat accredited in Algeria. Tebboune’s words in Rome contradict, in part, the aspirations expressed two days earlier in Davos by Sánchez. « Spain, the Iberian Peninsula and, I would say, southern Europe, will have the opportunity to provide an answer to this energy dependence on fossil energy from Russia, » he declared there in an interview with CNBC television.

    That response that Sánchez mentions would have two pillars. The six Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) regasification plants that Spain owns and that account for 37% of Europe’s capacity, although to be able to export it, a better interconnection with France would be necessary than that of the two small gas pipelines that exist today. The second pillar would consist of strengthening the energy relationship with the Algerian neighbor, something unimaginable today. This relationship began to decline when, by order of President Tebboune, the GME gas pipeline that crossed Morocco was closed on October 30. Through this tube, the bulk of the Algerian gas reached Spain. Now only the Medgaz works, which, submerged in the Mediterranean, links both countries, but since the beginning of the year the flow has decreased by 12%. It is not clear if with this reduction Sonatrach, the Algerian public hydrocarbon company, is trying to put pressure on its Spanish clients, starting with Naturgy, in the ongoing negotiation on price revision.

    ToufikHakkar, president of Sonatrach, dropped on April 1 that Spain would be the client whose rates would rise the most. Since the beginning of the year, the US has surpassed Algeria as the first supplier of Spain to which it sells LNG that arrives in methane tankers at Spanish ports. So far this year, only 22% of the gas consumed is imported from Algeria, while in 2021 that percentage was around 45%. Not a week has passed since the end of March without the Algerian authorities expressing, through declarations or the adoption of measures, their irritation with their Spanish neighbor. Algerian immigrants, like Moroccans, return en masse to their country for summer vacations and that is why their public airline (Air Algérie) and their shipping company (Algérie Ferries) increase their frequencies.

    The Algerian Ministry of Transport announced on May 20 the plan for the summer that freezes flights (only four weekly between Algiers and Barcelona) and crossings with Spain (only one weekly between Alicante and Oran), which will make it difficult for the back and forth between the two shores of the Mediterranean. The matter was debated last Tuesday in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Assembly (Algerian Parliament Lower Chamber). Mohamed Hani, its chair, justified Transport’s decision, although he recognized that it would harm immigrants. « Some decisions are taken by higher authorities and, God willing, we will find alternative solutions for the Algerian community » abroad.

    « Sometimes there are more important things » than serving immigrants, he added. « The choice of [air and sea] destinations is a sovereign decision. » « We haven’t removed the flights, but we haven’t added any, » he concluded. Algeria continues to allow Vueling and Iberia to operate between the two countries, but with very few frequencies. The transport restriction is added to many other reprisals taken since the Algerian ambassador to Spain, Said Moussi, was called for consultation on March 19. Among them, the suspension of the importation of Spanish beef stands out, whose annual exports were around 55 million euros per year – now they buy it from France – and the suspension, since April 2, of the repatriations of irregular immigrants arriving in Spain by sea.

    The tension with Spain contrasts with the « honeymoon » that Algeria is experiencing with Italy. The authorities and the Algerian press value it, thus giving the Spanish government to understand that its commitment to Morocco has made it lose many opportunities. Tebboune concluded his trip to Rome on Friday, but this was preceded by visits to Algiers by PM Mario Draghi and FM Luigi di Maio.

    This sensational strengthening of the ties between Algeria and Italy has caused concern in the Spanish government, as revealed in mid-April by the economic press agency Bloomberg. Italian and Spanish diplomats held talks after « concern grew in Madrid that their access to [Algerian] hydrocarbons could be affected, » he said. « They were merely informative contacts in which it was clear that the Italian-Algerian relationship will not harm Spain, » said a high-level Italian source.

    When the agreements recently signed in Rome and Algiers are implemented, Draghi will be on the verge of achieving his goal: to make Algeria Italy’s number one energy supplier, ahead of Russia. Already last month, Sonatrach and ENI, its Italian equivalent, agreed to increase gas exports to Italy by some 9,000 million cubic meters per year through the Transmed gas pipeline that ends in Sicily. It could thus pump 30,000 million annually.

    During the visit to Rome they also signed a memorandum of understanding for the development of green gas and hydrogen fields in Algeria. Tebboune himself announced, finally, that the project of an electrical submarine cable between the two countries that would pass through Sardinia is being reactivated.

    El Confidencial, May 28, 2022

    #Algeria #Spain #Morocco #WesternSahara #Gas

  • Did Morocco hack into Mohammed Barkindo’s smartphone?

    Did Morocco hack into Mohammed Barkindo’s smartphone?

    Morocco, Nigeria, Nigeria-Europe gas pipeline, Algeria, OPEC, Mohammed Barkindo, Spain, Pedro Sanchez, Western Sahara,

    Spain, Nigeria’s about-face,…: When the Makhzen excels in blackmail

    Supported by lobbies and Zionist media relays specialized in propaganda, the Makhzen exercises a horrible blackmail on the leaders of some countries and does not shy away from any process, even if it is petty and criminal, to achieve its goals and objectives. It is an undeniable fact that the Moroccan regime tries by all means to demonize Algeria, discredit its image and defeat everything that is favorable to it, economically and politically by presenting it as an unreliable country, allied with Russia, which is blackmailing (sic) Spain and other European countries even though everyone knows that in this game, few nations can compete with Morocco. And it is certainly not the Pegasus scandal that will tell us otherwise.

    The examples are, on this subject, legion. The latest is none other than the about-face of Nigeria in the case of the gas pipeline intended to supply the European continent with gas. While there was no question that the pipeline passes through Morocco, here is that to the surprise of all, the Nigerians suddenly change course, between February and late April, in a very suspicious and dubious way especially, opting for a route of scheme that crosses our western neighbor. The most informed observers see in this reversal an umpteenth twisted coup of the Makhzen but always with the same modus operandi and the same techniques, namely blackmail and diktat. Otherwise how to explain this exit of the Nigerians especially since Algiers and Abuja have everything tied up in this case.

    Specialists do not rule out the use of Morocco to hack the smartphones of some Nigerian officials and especially the SG of OPEC, Mohammed Barkindo, who would have weighed all his influence to bend the position of his country to the benefit of the Cherifian Kingdom, which will, moreover, receive financial support from OPEC, well, well, in order to implement the gas pipeline project on the ground.

    In any case, such actions by the Makhzen are far from being a precedent. Let’s remember the sad Spanish episode in the Western Sahara issue and the change of position of the Iberian government. It is clear that this turnaround of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, poorly hides the hand of the Moroccan regime that has threatened Spain via the issue of illegal immigration. Worse. It is whispered that the Makhzen holds compromising things on the Spanish PM for the latter to initiate a 360 ° turn, which has prompted the Spanish judiciary to take an interest in the subject and open an investigation while the government of Sanchez is trying to gain time not to embarrass its relations with Morocco and, above all, avoid the display in the public square of other scandals that would affect members of the government.

    File d’Algérie, May 19, 2022

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    #Morocco #Nigeria #Algeria #Gazoduc_nigeria_europe #Transaharan_pipeline #Pegasus #Espionage