Spain to negotiate turning Morón into US base for anti-jihadist operations

The Spanish foreign and defense ministries will negotiate with US authorities over converting the Morón de la Frontera air base into a permanent center of operations against jihadism.

The Cabinet greenlighted the negotiation on Friday because bilateral security relations with the US were “one of the most important” issues for Spain, said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría at the press conference following the meeting.

“Together with our membership of NATO and the EU, [these relations] are part of the three basic pillars of our strategic international relations for national defense,” she added.

If a deal is reached, the 850 Marines based in Morón could swell to several thousand in crisis situations

Spain is now ready to discuss a petition first formulated in December by US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who asked Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenés for permission to upgrade the US military center to a permanent headquarters for the Pentagon’s Africa Command task force.

If a deal is reached, the elite force of 850 Marines based in Morón could swell to several thousand in crisis situations, and become a permanent presence in southern Andalusia. The force’s main goal is slowing down the advance of jihadism in the Maghreb and Sahel regions of Africa.

The new reform will turn Morón into a permanent base for the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force for Crisis Response, created after the September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The rapid response unit arrived in Spain in 2013 on a one-year authorization, and in 2014 it was extended for an additional year, raising the number of Marines there from 500 to 850.

But this new deal cannot simply be extended by the government. Because it requires the reform of an international treaty, it also needs to be ratified by the Spanish parliament.