The Royal Navy of Morocco began military maneuvers this Friday that will last three months in front of Western Sahara, a non-autonomous territory under the supervision of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization that Rabat considers its own under the name of Southern Provinces, local media report.
A document from the Maritime Fisheries Commission of El Aaiún – a Sahrawi city under Maghreb control – dated March 19 was distributed among fishermen, ship owners and other interested parties, which provides the coordinates of four maritime areas where the naval exercises.
It should be noted that these military maneuvers, which will take place from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (local time) every day between March 29 and June 28, will take place off the Canary Islands (Spain), just 125 kilometers from its coast.
The Canary Islands authorities have criticized that they were not warned of this by either the Government of Morocco or Spain. In fact, the president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, conveyed his concern regarding the military exercises of the Alawite kingdom to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. With RT