Perejil isn’t enough for everyone

The conflict between Spain and Morocco concerning belonging of Perejil has become aggravated once again. On Monday, Morocco Foreign Minister, Mohamed Benaissa cancelled his scheduled visit to Spain. At that, Morocco blamed Spain for breaking the agreement on demilitarization of the island. The Moors say that a Spanish war helicopter landed in the island on Sunday. And Spain, in its turn says, the helicopter just flew around and didn’t land.  

The conflict about Perejil broke out in July 2002 when Morocco troops landed on the desert island belonging to Spain. In several days, the Spanish troops drove out the Moors settled in the island. After that, the parties seemed to have reached a consensus. Leaders of both countries took a time-out within which lawyers and historians were to find documents to confirm belonging of the island to one of the two conflicting sides. Morocco says that Leila (which is another name for Perejil) has always been an integral part of its territories. They add at that, there are lots of historic facts proving belonging of the disputable island to Morocco.

However, Spain owns the island since 1668, and it is not clear in this case which country is right. It seems that the island isn’t worth arguing about, because it is just a parcel of stony land, not more. Probably, the debaters merely stick to the principle not to take other people’s things and not to give away its own. Probably, that is why Spain is so much nervous about the problem.

Dmitry Chirkin
PRAVDA.Ru