LANZAROTE, Spain — Spain said Moroccan authorities Saturday again refused to allow Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar to return home, a decision it said it "deeply regrets."
The decision risked worsening the already tense diplomatic relations between Spain and Morocco over the award-winning activist, who has been on a hunger strike for almost three weeks.
The chief of staff at the foreign ministry, Agustin Santos, said Rabat early Saturday refused to allow Haidar to return to her hometown of Laayoune in Western Sahara from Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands, even though she had an exit permit from Spain.
He told reporters in Lanzarote that Spain "deeply regrets" Rabat's decision which is "contrary to international law."
It was the second time in two days that Morocco has refused Haidar permission to return.
Spain said on Friday Rabat had initially allowed her to fly to Laayoune and then denied permission as the plane was preparing to take off.
Haidar, who campaigns for the independence of the Western Sahara from Morocco, had boarded the plane after calling off a hunger strike which she had staged at the airport on Lanzarote.
The 42-year-old on Saturday resumed the fast that she began on November 16, three days after Moroccan authorities denied her entry into Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco in 1975, allegedly confiscated her passport, and sent her back to Lanzarote.
The mother-of-two has camped out at the airport to draw attention to her cause, which has been backed by several celebrities, including Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
Spain had offered to give Haidar refugee status or Spanish citizenship so she could be allowed to return home but she rejected both options on the grounds that she did not want to become "a foreigner in her own home."
Santos said Saturday that Spain has offered to house her until the situation is resolved and also allow visits by her family.
Haidar responded by saying her only wish is to "go home to my children and my mother, in Laayoune."
And she again hit out at Spanish authorities, whom she has accused of collaborating with Morocco by accepting her after she was expelled from the Western Sahara.
"Spain is unable to resolve the situation," she said in a statement read by her lawyer, Ines Miranda.
"I say once again that Spain is Morocco's accomplice, and both governments want to push me to death. Spain is directly responsible for the consequences of the hunger strike that I have been keeping for 20 days."
The Moroccan embassy in Madrid issued a statement Saturday rejecting "all the versions, speculation and commentaries that have been going round about the supposed withdrawal of the supposed authorization" for Haidar's return.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said Wednesday that Haidar had "disowned her identity and her nationality" and "must accept, on her own, the legal and moral consequences which result from this behavior".
Morocco annexed phosphate-rich Western Sahara after Spain left in 1975 and has pledged to grant it widespread autonomy, but rules out independence as demanded by the Polisario Front movement.
While fighting in the desert territory halted in 1991, UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have made no headway.
Haidar won the Robert Kennedy human rights prize in 2008 as well as several other awards for her activism on behalf of Western Sahara.
The decision risked worsening the already tense diplomatic relations between Spain and Morocco over the award-winning activist, who has been on a hunger strike for almost three weeks.
The chief of staff at the foreign ministry, Agustin Santos, said Rabat early Saturday refused to allow Haidar to return to her hometown of Laayoune in Western Sahara from Lanzarote in Spain's Canary Islands, even though she had an exit permit from Spain.
He told reporters in Lanzarote that Spain "deeply regrets" Rabat's decision which is "contrary to international law."
It was the second time in two days that Morocco has refused Haidar permission to return.
Spain said on Friday Rabat had initially allowed her to fly to Laayoune and then denied permission as the plane was preparing to take off.
Haidar, who campaigns for the independence of the Western Sahara from Morocco, had boarded the plane after calling off a hunger strike which she had staged at the airport on Lanzarote.
The 42-year-old on Saturday resumed the fast that she began on November 16, three days after Moroccan authorities denied her entry into Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco in 1975, allegedly confiscated her passport, and sent her back to Lanzarote.
The mother-of-two has camped out at the airport to draw attention to her cause, which has been backed by several celebrities, including Oscar-winning Spanish actor Javier Bardem.
Spain had offered to give Haidar refugee status or Spanish citizenship so she could be allowed to return home but she rejected both options on the grounds that she did not want to become "a foreigner in her own home."
Santos said Saturday that Spain has offered to house her until the situation is resolved and also allow visits by her family.
Haidar responded by saying her only wish is to "go home to my children and my mother, in Laayoune."
And she again hit out at Spanish authorities, whom she has accused of collaborating with Morocco by accepting her after she was expelled from the Western Sahara.
"Spain is unable to resolve the situation," she said in a statement read by her lawyer, Ines Miranda.
"I say once again that Spain is Morocco's accomplice, and both governments want to push me to death. Spain is directly responsible for the consequences of the hunger strike that I have been keeping for 20 days."
The Moroccan embassy in Madrid issued a statement Saturday rejecting "all the versions, speculation and commentaries that have been going round about the supposed withdrawal of the supposed authorization" for Haidar's return.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri said Wednesday that Haidar had "disowned her identity and her nationality" and "must accept, on her own, the legal and moral consequences which result from this behavior".
Morocco annexed phosphate-rich Western Sahara after Spain left in 1975 and has pledged to grant it widespread autonomy, but rules out independence as demanded by the Polisario Front movement.
While fighting in the desert territory halted in 1991, UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara's future have made no headway.
Haidar won the Robert Kennedy human rights prize in 2008 as well as several other awards for her activism on behalf of Western Sahara.
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