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Spain seeks better Morocco ties after enclave spat
RABAT (Reuters) - Spain pushed for a return to normal relations with Morocco on Thursday, two months after a controversial visit by King Juan Carlos to two Spanish enclaves on Morocco's Mediterranean coast that Rabat claims as its own.
Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visited Morocco for talks with his opposite number and handed him a letter addressed to Morocco's King Mohammed.
"Our talks were extremely direct and, as always, frank, marked by friendship and sincerity...," Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri told reporters.
He said they had agreed "to work together to respect each other and not to hurt the national feelings of the neighboring countries".
No immediate decision was made on the eventual return of Morocco's ambassador to Madrid. He was withdrawn ahead of the Spanish king's visit to the small Mediterranean enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on November 5 and 6, his first as head of state.
The timing of the king's trip was regarded by Morocco as particularly awkward because it coincided with the anniversary of the 1975 Green March in which Morocco took control of much of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
King Mohammed condemned the visit by Juan Carlos as "a counterproductive step that hurt the deep patriotic feelings of the whole Moroccan people".
Spanish-Moroccan relations had been improving since Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero came to power in early 2004 and aligned his foreign policy closer to that of staunch Moroccan ally France.
A low point was reached under Zapatero's predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, when Morocco sent troops to the tiny disputed island of Perejil and Spain sent special forces to oust them.
Spain took Melilla at the end of the 15th century and took over Ceuta from Portugal in the 17th century.
The enclaves are the centre of a lively trade in contraband goods smuggled into Morocco and a target for desperate African migrants trying to reach European territory illegally.
(Reporting by Tom Pfeiffer and Zakia Abdennebi; editing by Robert Woodward)
