I guess it's mostly symbolic, but it's an exceptional case of some news that could justify a little optimism about reproachment between Islam and the West. (Anyway, I definitely like Zapatero.)
24 Apr 2004 13:43:23 GMT
New Morocco-Spain relations as Zapatero visits
By Adrian Croft
CASABLANCA, Morocco, April 24 (Reuters) - Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero paid his first visit abroad on Saturday to Morocco to mark a symbolic start to a new period of relations and boost cooperation against terrorism.
The brief visit came as 15 Moroccans were under arrest in Spain on suspicion of taking part in the commuter train bombings that killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11.
Zapatero, who took office a week ago, received a red carpet welcome as his Moroccan counterpart Driss Jettou greeted him.
Spain's heads of government have traditionally paid their first official visits to Morocco. Zapatero said the day after his Socialist Party won last month's general election that the Muslim North African country was a foreign policy priority.
During talks with King Mohammed and Jettou, Zapatero was expected to discuss ways to increase cooperation against terrorism, in particular sharing intelligence, and immigration, Spanish government sources said.
Both countries have suffered from the same kind of "jihadist (holy war) terrorism", the sources said, pointing to the ideological links between the Madrid bombings and suicide attacks by radical Islamists in Casablanca last May.
The coordinated attacks against five targets, including a Spanish restaurant, were carried out by 12 suicide bombers. Another 33 people were killed, including four Spaniards.
The previous Spanish government named the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group as a prime suspect in the Madrid attacks. The group is believed to have ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
THE SPAIN WE LOVE
Moroccan and Spanish investigators have been cooperating in the probe into the Madrid killings. Experts say the common security agenda may help the countries improve their relations, which have often been strained in recent years.
Spain and Morocco narrowly avoided a military clash in July 2002 over an uninhabited islet, just off Morocco's Mediterranean coast. Fishing rights for Morocco's Atlantic coast and heavy flows of illegal immigrants into Spain from Morocco have also been long-standing sources of discord.
But Zapatero's victory opened a new phase of warmer ties.
For Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, the visit is "a reunion of two countries which, although they are separated by just a few miles of water, have been too far apart recently because of reproaches and unnecessary tensions".
The two countries on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar share a historically complex relationship and have a strategic interest in each other, she told reporters on Friday.
"Morocco and Spain are showing with this meeting that there are not two opposing civilisations, the Arab civilisation and the Western civilisation, but there is a single civilisation which confronts the barbarism of terrorism firmly," she said.
In Rabat, newspaper editorials and politicians saw in Zapatero's visit a fresh start after eight years of bilateral tension under the rule of his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar.
Media commentators had not enough words of praise to laud Zapatero's "sincerity, openness" comparing it with the "conceit, arrogance and contempt" showed by Aznar, perceived as a hardliner on all issues affecting Morocco.
"The man who hates Morocco is replaced by the one who embodies the Spain that we love," wrote Aujourd'hui Le Maroc.
AlertNet news is provided by Reuters.
― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 24 April 2004 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)