Gustavo de Arístegui on Spain’s new position

Gustavo de Arístegui is a Spanish politician, diplomat and an international analyst. He comes from a long-standing diplomatic background, his father and grandfather were both senior diplomats posted as ambassadors in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. Gustavo de Arístegui was elected to Parliament from the Basque region for three terms and served as Shadow Foreign Minister from 2008–2012. He is currently a member of the Board of the European Council of Foreign Relations and has authored four books on Arab politics and Islam.

Gustavo de Arístegui also expressed hopes that the new parameters that now guide the Spanish position should also “inspire” the whole world and lead to “a reconciliation between Algeria and Morocco. A reconciliation that may require time, but that is what we all want,” he said, commenting the recent message addressed to HM King Mohammed VI by the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, in which he confirms his support for the autonomy plan in the Moroccan Sahara. These new parameters, he added, “lead us to another thinking …. on the question of the representation of the polisario in relation to the Saharawis. The polisario is not the only representative of the Sahrawi people,” he pointed out.

According to the former MP, “This issue has been a source of confusion in Spain on several occasions”. Spain’s new position on the Moroccan Sahara issue and the support of the government on Morocco’s proposal to give autonomy to Sahara has generated a new conflict between PSOE and Podemos, the government partners and with the Government and its parliamentary partners. The reconstruction of relations between Spain and Morocco and the way in which the Spanish Government has handled this situation has created a wave of criticism among the opposition parties.

“I understand the criticisms that are made by both analysts, media directors, commentators, critics for not having consulted the opposition on an issue of such great importance for Spain’s foreign policy, for peace and security in the Sahel, which is essential for the entire world. But it is such a question extraordinarily complex and delicate that the negotiations had to be carried out in the most absolute discretion and a leak would have generated a debate that could have derailed the agreement between the two countries”, asserts the Spanish politician and international analyst Gustavo de Arístegui, when talking about Spain’s change of position on Western Sahara in Herrera en COPE.

Gustavo de Arístegui also points out the two sides to that criticism. The risks in consulting the opposition and other partners would have been very high and there is more serious chance of destability in Europe and the Mediterranean in the Maghreb than in the 1970s. There are forces with extraordinary destabilization capacity like the terrorist groups in the Sahel and the Boko Haram who are increasingly attacking targets further north and therefore in this situation, peace, security and stability in the Maghreb is essential. Gustavo de Arístegui also remembers the central role that Algeria has played in the stability of the Maghreb and the sacrifices made by hundreds of thousands of Algerians in the fight against jihadism. On the geopolitical level, Aristegui pleaded for a rapprochement between Morocco and Algeria to tackle, together, the terror threats coming from the Sahel.