MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2021) Morocco's foreign ministry summoned the Spanish ambassador on Sunday after Spain said that a Western Saharan rebel leader was receiving medical care in the country.
"Morocco deplores the attitude of Spain, which hosts on its territory the man named Brahim Ghali, leader of the 'polisario' separatist militias," a statement read.
The ministry said that Madrid's decision to allow 71-year-old Ghali in the country, where he had been treated for COVID-19 since at least last week, was "contrary to the spirit of partnership."
"This is why the Ambassador of Spain in Rabat was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs... so that this position could be conveyed to him," the statement added.
Tensions between Morocco and Western Sahara's Polisario Front flared in fall after Morocco launched an offensive in the Guerguerat buffer zone, in the south of the former Spanish colony which it annexed in 1976.
