Spain pays for Iraq?

A bomb blast in Morocco's largest city Casablanca has killed a Spanish national.

According to the Spanish Foreign Ministry, a businessman from Catalonia (Spain's north-eastern province) happened to be in the Casa de Espana cultural centre at the time of a terrorist attack against the facility.

Spanish observers highlight the fact that it was the Muslim terrorists' first attack against a Spanish property. The political analysts believe the attack results from the policy of active support for the US action in Iraq that Spain, traditionally having special relations with the Arab world, had chosen to pursue.

Prominent Arab leaders have been warning Madrid of the mounting anti-Spanish sentiments in Muslim countries. They did not exclude that Spain's pro-American stance might entail terrorist acts against Spanish nationals.

The leaders of the Spanish political opposition, strongly protesting against the Government's policy in the Iraq conflict, have also on many occasions pointed to the risk of such an eventuality.