OVIEDO, Spain 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defended Madrid’s decision to side with Morocco on the status of Western Sahara on Wednesday, announcing that the nation’s borders could open “very soon.”

Speaking for the first time on Spain’s sharp foreign policy change, Sanchez said that the move will help normalize Spain’s relationship with Morocco and guarantee the “territorial integrity” of both nations.

Last year, a diplomatic rift broke out between Spain and Morocco when Spain allowed the leader of Western Sahara’s separatist Polisario Front to be treated in Spain for COVID-19.

Shortly after, Moroccan authorities sat by while around 10,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in northern Africa.

At the time, Spain subscribed to the UN-backed view that Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, has the right to self-determination. But last week, that stance shifted.

In a letter to Moroccan King Mohamed VI, Sanchez endorsed Morocco’s plan to have the region operate autonomously under Rabat’s rule.

Spain’s new position was only made public when a Moroccan newspaper published parts of the letter on Friday.

But the foreign policy stance, which was reportedly not communicated to Spain’s junior ruling coalition partner Unidas Podemos or Algerian officials beforehand, has sparked fury from several sides.

Algeria, Spain’s top supplier of natural gas, was particularly outraged by the government’s move.

Algeria supports independence for Western Sahara and the issue has caused deep tensions between Morocco and Algeria for years.

The Algerian ambassador to Spain has been summoned back to Algeria for consultations and its government has condemned Spain’s “abrupt U-turn.”

“We will do everything we can to recover the diplomatic relations that have been altered in recent days,” said Sanchez, calling Algeria a “strategic partner.”

Spanish politicians across party lines have also sharply criticized the rapid change of mind.

“This is not state policy because it isn’t backed by the Popular Party and it isn’t even government policy because it’s not backed by the government’s coalition partners Podemos,” opposition politician Valentina Martinez said in parliament Wednesday. “Even parts of the Socialist Party are against it.”

The Bildu politician Jon Inarritu also slammed the executive’s unilateral move.

“They closed one crisis with Morocco to open three more with the Polisario Front, Algeria and an internal crisis with its progressive partners,” he said.

On Tuesday, Unidas Podemos politicians unveiled Western Sahara flags in parliament.

“Spain has spent too many years being a spectator and now it wants to be an actor,” Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Wednesday, insisting that any solution to the decades-long conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara has to be accepted by both sides.

According to the letter sent to the Moroccan King, Spain believes that Morocco’s proposal for Saharan autonomy within Morocco is the “most serious, credible and realistic to end this dispute.”

Sanchez also announced that Albares will travel to Rabat to continue talks shortly.