Spanish Head of Government’s Statement Comes as “Great Surprise”, Foreign Affairs Ministry

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The reaction of the head of the Spanish government “rejecting the Moroccan statement by linking it to migration” comes as a “great surprise”, said on Monday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad. Morocco is not used of getting involved in controversies over statements by senior officials from foreign countries. However, today’s comment by the head of the Spanish government, rejecting the Moroccan statement by linking it to migration, comes as a great surprise, said the ministry in a press release. These statements call for the following clarifications, the same source said. “We do not know which Moroccan statement the head of the Spanish government is referring to. All the latest statements by Moroccan diplomatic officials (including the minister, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Madrid and the Director General) do not mention the migration issue,” said the ministry, adding that its statement issued on Monday, and widely quoted by the Spanish media outlets, addresses briefly the migratory question, and its does so to recall the good cooperation. “It is therefore legitimate to wonder if the head of the Spanish government has read the various statements inherent in this crisis and in particular that of today”, wondered the ministry, stressing that it is not up to foreign officials to specify what Moroccan officials should talk about. In Morocco, the management of the crisis concerns several state institutions and departments, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which only represents, within the framework of its prerogatives, the national position at the diplomatic and media levels, said the same source. Recalling that Morocco has repeatedly stressed that the bilateral crisis is not linked to the migration issue, the ministry explained that “the genesis and the underlying reasons behind the crisis are now well known, notably to the Spanish public opinion”. Migration should not be a pretext to distract attention from the real causes of the bilateral crisis, the ministry concluded.