Spain's newly elected prime minister Adolfo Suárez warned Morocco's King Hassan II in January 1978 that Spain could bomb Rabat or Casablanca within 48 hours if Morocco attempted to seize Ceuta or Melilla, in a confrontation that unfolded during a state visit to Madrid and was witnessed by King Juan Carlos I.
Hassan II had been invited to Spain by Juan Carlos I, and the meeting had been expected to be a friendly one. The atmosphere changed when Hassan II encouraged Suárez to hold on to the executive powers he had accumulated as Francisco Franco's designated successor and to step back from the democratic transition then underway in Spain. The remarks amounted to a dismissal of Spain's political transformation, and Suárez rejected them outright. A meeting intended as amicable became a sequence of tense exchanges that eventually turned to North Africa.
Hassan II told Suárez that Ceuta and Melilla were defenseless against a surprise attack from Morocco. Suárez did not yield. He replied sharply that if Morocco were to launch such an attack, Spain could bomb Rabat or Casablanca within 48 hours. He added that the defense of Spanish territory was not a matter of improvisation but was already built into Spain's formal defense plans.
The shadow of the Green March
The confrontation came three years after Morocco's Green March of 1975. Hassan II had organized the movement of a large number of Moroccan civilians into the Western Sahara, a territory then under Spanish administration, timed to coincide with Franco's terminal illness and the political uncertainty it produced. The maneuver brought the Sahara's sovereignty into international dispute, and Morocco has since harbored analogous ambitions toward Ceuta and Melilla.
A long-contested sovereignty
Morocco continues to characterize Ceuta and Melilla as occupied cities. Spain's claim to both, however, predates Moroccan independence, which dates to 1956, by several centuries. Melilla was conquered in 1497 by Pedro de Estopiñán y Virués, with the backing of the Catholic Monarchs. Ceuta was first taken by Portugal in 1415 and passed to the Spanish Crown following the dissolution of the Iberian Union in the 17th century.
The dispute shows no sign of resolution. Morocco's royal family and society at large have continued pressing their claim to both cities. A recent mass crossing brought tens of thousands of Moroccan nationals to Ceuta by sea, while hundreds more reached Melilla. The episode has drawn comparison to the 1975 Green March, with questions raised over whether it was a spontaneous movement or a deliberate political maneuver from Morocco, as the Green March had been in the Western Sahara decades earlier.
