By Pedro Canales.
On July 19, 2024, the new commander of the patrol boat Isla Pinto, Manuel Ángel López, took office in a military ceremony that had little significance outside the military sphere. The Navy’s patrol boat fulfills its duties in the southern Mediterranean region, with a stopover in Melilla. Commander López, originally from the Galician city of Marin, in Pontevedra, previously served on the frigate Blas de Lezo.
Three weeks later, on August 13, “the Ceuta and Melilla case” gained surprising relevance with the statements of intelligence expert and analyst Fernando Cocho, who announced that there is an agreement between Spain and Morocco to share the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla starting in 2030.
This Hispano-Moroccan co-sovereignty project enjoys the support of the European Union, particularly France, and of course the United States, according to the expert analyst.
In his surprising statement, Fernando Cocho lamented the silence of Pedro Sánchez’s government, which “says nothing” and “will do nothing.” Ceuta and Melilla are two cities where Spain has been present for more than 500 years, and which Morocco claims as historically belonging to the Kingdom.
Fernando Cocho’s statements were followed by others denying the existence of a “Spain-Morocco agreement” to initiate a Hispano-Moroccan co-sovereignty of the Spanish cities and islets in North Africa.
A month after taking command of the Isla Pinto, Commander Manuel Ángel López made a public appearance with statements reflecting the thoughts of the Spanish Navy and its commanders regarding “the Ceuta and Melilla case.”
In an interview with the Melilla newspaper El Faro de Melilla, Commander López did not mince words. “We will begin our activities at the end of the year… I will continue the work of my predecessor, and to the extent possible, we will always have the patrol boat ready for the operational needs that the Navy deems necessary.”
When asked about these needs, he was clear: “The mission of this ship is maritime surveillance; that is, to control the spaces of national sovereignty, in this case, given that Melilla has its territorial waters from the pier to 12 nautical miles out, and then everything related to the sovereign spaces of the Chafarinas Islands, Alhucemas, and Vélez de la Gomera.” … “We must remind Morocco that Spain is still the owner of both cities (Ceuta and Melilla) and that they have territorial waters with a set of rights that must be respected.”
Commander Manuel Ángel López’s statements were direct towards Moroccan authorities but also indirectly aimed at Spanish political authorities. Morocco understood them well, as they were statements of principle: the Navy protects and defends national sovereignty, controls jurisdictional waters, and fights against any violation of its maritime space by drug trafficking and human trafficking mafias. The Alaouite Kingdom does the same in its own waters.
Where Manuel A. López’s statements provoke controversy is in regards to “jurisdictional waters.” Spain has issues with all its neighbors concerning the definition of territorial waters and maritime spaces. With Great Britain, the waters around Gibraltar have been the subject of repeated protests and conflicts in recent times; with France, there is a lack of clarity regarding exclusive economic zones in the waters of the Gulf of Lyon; with Algeria, there is a problem in defining jurisdictional waters after the Algerian government’s 2018 declaration of its Exclusive Economic Zone, which overlaps with the waters of the Italian island of Sardinia and the Spanish island of Cabrera, which is also a protected natural area.
With Portugal, the joint management of continental waters, rivers, and their basins has been smooth since the signing of the Albufeira Convention in 1998. However, there may be different interpretations of international rights regarding the waters and maritime spaces of the Canary and Azores archipelagos. Spain (Canaries) and Portugal (Azores) both have 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, a 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, and an Exclusive Economic Zone extending up to 200 nautical miles. These overlap precisely between the Canaries and the Azores.
Concerning Morocco, Spain has also not clearly defined its jurisdictional waters, whether in the Alboran Sea, in areas close to Ceuta and Melilla and the islets, or in the Atlantic waters around the Canary Islands and the maritime zone of the Sahara. So far, there has been no agreement between Rabat and Madrid in this regard. In December 2003, Spanish President José María Aznar and King Mohamed VI of Morocco decided in their meeting in Marrakech to create a Bilateral Committee to study and resolve the issue of territorial waters.
Commander López’s statements are clear: the Navy defends national sovereignty and jurisdictional waters. But if these waters are not sufficiently defined, the responsibility lies with the political authorities.