Greater Morocco

In 1963, following the Independence of Algeria, Morocco attacked a strip of its south-western regions (Tindouf Province and Béchar Province), claiming that parts of them were previously under Moroccan sovereignty. There were several hundred casualties. French sources reported Algerian casualties to be 60 dead and 250 wounded,[1] with later works giving a number of 300 Algerian dead.[2] Morocco officially reported to have suffered 39 dead.[3] Moroccan losses were probably lower than the Algerians' but are unconfirmed,[1] with later sources reporting 200 Moroccan dead.[4] About 57 Moroccans and 379 Algerians were taken prisoner.[3] After a month of fighting and some hundreds of casualties, the conflict stalemated (see Sand War).

In the early stages of decolonisation certain elected Moroccan politicians, in particular some members of the Istiqlal party, like Allal al-Fassi, the sole advocate of "total liberation" who refused to enter France even to meet with his Monarch or long-standing nationalist colleagues,[5] were in favor of claiming wider territories historically associated in some way with the Moroccan Sultan. This was initially not supported by the Sultan (later King) of Morocco.[5] Al-Fassi's ambitions gained more support in parliament in the beginning of the sixties, leading to a delay in the recognition of Mauritania (independent in 1960, not recognised by Morocco until 1969).[6]

Al-Fassi's wider claims were effectively abandoned in the later sixties, although Morocco claims Western Sahara and the Spanish plazas de soberanía on its northern coast. Morocco's refusal to accept its post-colonial borders in the case of Western Sahara has put it on a collision course with the African Union, which holds this as one of its principles. As a consequence, Morocco is the only African country to step out of the union, because the Polisario Front, representing the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic was awarded a seat. [7]

After Moroccan independence in 1956 and the death of King Mohammed V, the government of King Hassan II laid claim on several territories, successfully acquiring the Tarfaya Strip, after the Ifni War with Spain, and much of the territory around Ceuta and Melilla, as well as the acquisition of much of Spanish Sahara after Spain handed the territory to Morocco and Mauritania (see the Madrid Accords, it is still currently under dispute with the Polisario front who claim it as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic).

Recently in 2002, an armed incident erupted between Morocco and Spain, regarding the uninhabited Perejil Island, located 250m off the Moroccan northern coast. On July 11, 2002 a group of Moroccan soldiers set up base on the islet. The Moroccan government said that they set foot on the island in order to monitor illegal immigration, which was denied by the Spanish government since there had been little co-operation in the matter by that time (a repeated source of complaint from Spain). After protests from the Spanish government, led by José María Aznar, the soldiers were replaced by Moroccan navy cadets who then installed a fixed base on the island. On the morning of July 18, 2002 Spain launched a full-scale military operation to take over the island. The operation was successful and the Moroccan navy cadets were dislodged from the island in a matter of hours without offering any resistance to the Spanish Grupo de Operaciones Especiales (commando) attack force. The islet is now deserted.[8]