Marruecos nombra nuevos embajadores excluyendo a España y Alemania
King Mohammed VI has appointed 36 ambassadors to improve Morocco's relations with foreign countries. Two countries are missing from the long list of appointments. Spain and Germany will continue to be without heads of diplomatic missions from the Alawi kingdom. The main reason for this is the crisis over Western Sahara. The non-recognition of Moroccan authority over the region, as more and more countries are doing, means that Rabat has not been able to resolve the disagreements that separate them, despite maintaining good relations with both countries, especially Spain.
Among the new ambassadors appointed by Morocco, Mohamed Benchaaboun stands out, taking over the kingdom's embassy in France from Aziz Akhanouch's new education minister. The United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Greece and Norway are the European countries that will have new Moroccan representatives. According to the EFE news agency, those who will occupy these posts, without yet knowing the specific country designations, are Hakim Hajoui, Mohamed El Basri, Karim Medrek, Mohamed Sbihi, Wissane Zailachi and Nabila Freidji.
The African continent and Latin America will also have new Moroccan ambassadors. The Kingdom's embassy for Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau will be headed by Hassan Naciri, while that of Mali will be headed by Driss Isbayene, Tanzania by Zakaria El Goumiri and that of Kenya and Sudan by Abderrazzak Laassel. Latin America, meanwhile, will see a renewed Moroccan presence with the arrival of Hicham Elaloui, Bouchra Boudchich and Hicham Dehane at the Alawite kingdom's embassies in Cuba, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
The Spanish Foreign Ministry assured 20 Minutos that it "does not comment on the sovereign decisions of another state". The withdrawal of Karima Benyaich in mid-May as a result of the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has still not been resolved. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares's efforts will have to be stepped up if Madrid is to restore relations with a historic ally. It is also true that the occasions on which Albares and Morocco's foreign minister, Nasser Bourita, have met have been rare, if not non-existent.
The United Nations General Assembly in New York, first, and the Union for the Mediterranean summit, later, were two frustrated occasions for the ministers. On both occasions it was Bourita who failed to attend, postponing Albares' long-awaited meeting. The diplomatic crisis between Spain and Morocco triggered by Ghali's entry into Spain, and continued with the irregular entry of thousands of migrants through the Ceuta border, does not seem to have a solution in sight, quite the opposite in fact. Seven months after Benyaich was recalled for consultations, the Moroccan embassy in Madrid is still without a leader and the distance between Moroccans and Spaniards does not seem to be narrowing.
