Spanish website “ABC”: Spain to send military ship to border with Morocco to monitor coast of Melilla
By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS– According to the Spanish website “ABC”, the Spanish military command intends to send a military vessel near the city of Melilla to provide 24-hour surveillance of the coasts of the region.
This measure is the first of its kind and has great symbolism for the city which is under Spanish jurisdiction, in agreement with Morocco, as an official border area and customs transit center between the two countries.
The international military vessel, with a length of approximately 31 meters, will dock in the maritime waters of the Alboran area, which is under Spanish jurisdiction in the city of Melilla, and includes a naval crew of ten sailors. The warship contains a 12.70 caliber machine gun (Kord) as its primary weapon. Madrid uses warships as pretexts to threaten the warehouse in the event of strained relations between the two countries.
This measure recalls the use of military forces by Spain during the secret immigration crisis that the city of Ceuta experienced months ago. The deployment of military forces aims to strengthen the systems for the protection of Spanish national maritime interests as well as to control Spanish sovereign maritime areas.
It is important to emphasize that this is not the first time that the Spanish army has resorted to the deployment of its forces in its maritime territories. Spanish military leaders had already published in January 2022 photos of military ships and carried out close-ups of one of its cannons to monitor its territory waters, in the midst of an acute crisis between Madrid and Rabat linked to the Jafariya islands.
