Gibraltar heats up Spanish PM UK visit

 

Britain and Spain can find themselves at each other’s throats over the strategic Strait of Gibraltar during Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s British visit. Rajoy is to meet British PM David Cameron in London on Tuesday and Spanish cabinet sources have revealed that he is going to call for a “constructive dialogue” on the subject of Gibraltar. Britain is refusing to hold talks on Gibraltar’s sovereignty using the same excuses it has used to avoid negotiations with Argentina on Las Malvinas (Falklands). The United Nations records show Britain has illegally occupied both territories, which are among the ten territories on the UN Special Committee on Decolonization list of areas waiting for liberation from British rule. Madrid has said Cameron’s comments earlier this month that London would consider talks on Gibraltar’s sovereignty only with the consent of the territory’s residents goes against the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht as well as the UN resolutions on the decolonization of the territory. Britain invaded and captured Gibraltar in 1704 and Spain ceded its sovereignty to Britain nine years later as part of the treaty that ended the War of Succession in Europe, yet the details of the treaty on Gibraltar are a point of contention for both sides. Spanish foreign minister Garcia-Margallo sent a letter to his British counterpart William Hague after Cameron’s remarks on Gibraltar’s sovereignty in a bid to clarify Madrid’s position on the subject. Margallo later also raised the matter with British Secretary of State for Europe, David Lidington, stressing the sovereignty talks should resume after a delay under socialist governments in Madrid. Spain and Britain have a history of fighting over Gibraltar including the fierce row in 2004 when the Madrid government banned all cruise ships that call at the Rock from entering Spanish ports. The move was termed the “cruise ship war” at the time by the government of Gibraltar, which is located in the southern part of Spain and at the mouth of the Mediterranean. Argentina and its Latin American allies also recently took a similar step against all ships flying the Falklands flags. The British governments, both in 2004 and now, have condemned the bans as illegal in total disregard of the UN’s position on the subject.

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