The King of Morocco implicitly claims sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla

BarcelonaThe King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, returned to Rabat on Monday after spending two months on holiday at his luxurious residence in Mdiq, 30 kilometers from Ceuta, which has just experienced the worst migratory crisis in its history. He returned to preside over the celebration of Al-Mawlid, which commemorates the birth of the prophet Muhammad, in his capacity as the country's highest religious authority. The Alawite monarch led the ceremony at the royal palace, accompanied by Crown Prince Moulay Hassan and his brother Moulay Rachid, second in line to the throne, and surrounded by the government's top officials, the diplomatic corps, and the highest Moroccan military authorities.

At the event, the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Toufiq, gave a speech with historical references to Ceuta. He referred to the work of two Islamic scholars born in Ceuta before the city became part of the Hispanic monarchy in 1580, after being conquered by the Kingdom of Portugal in 1415. The minister sought to assert the Moroccan identity of the city by linking it to the prophet's tradition. He cited Caïd Ayad, from the 12th century, and his Treatise on the healing virtues of the knowledge of the prophet's rights, and also Abu al-Abbas al-Azafi, from the 12th century, and his Anthology of poems composed in celebration of the birth of the illustrious prophet. He also cited Imam Mohamed al-Jazouli from The guides to the paths of good, a work to which he referred as the basis for prayers that contained "the sacred struggle of Moroccans to liberate the cities occupied along the Atlantic Ocean at the beginning of the contemporary era." At that time, the Portuguese empire occupied the Moroccan cities of El Jadida and Essaouira, and Ceuta in the Mediterranean.

References to Ceuta have not gone unnoticed by the Moroccan press, which has no room to question the regime, which has no room to question the regime. "There are diplomatic responses in the form of statements or press conferences. And then there are those that only need to mention a few names to say a lot," writes a columnist for the portal Le 360. "While Madrid repeatedly rejects any sovereign claim over Ceuta and Melilla, Rabat has given a more subtle response: not to engage directly in the territorial debate but to invoke history." And he adds: "Madrid can say that Ceuta is Spanish, consider the territorial issue definitively closed, and set aside all discussion about sovereignty. But there is a reality that no government can decree: the erasure of history and of physical and human geography.

Rabat's response is subtle: instead of proclaiming that Ceuta is Moroccan, it presents it as a cradle of its civilization, of law and of Muslim spirituality long before the protectorates and modern borders, referring to its essence, long before the country established its independence.