Spanish strongholds: exclaves in North Africa

It was five years ago this summer that Morocco and Spain had a bit of a spat over an uninhabited rocky island just off the coast of North Africa. Evidently Spain thought that the Isla Perejil, which lies a mere two hundred metres off the coast of Morocco was actually Spanish territory. So the Madrid government was more than a shade miffed when a handful of Moroccan troops landed and raised their national flag. For many Europeans, reading their morning newspapers in the days thereafter, this mid-summer invasion raised a smile or two, and it wasn't long before the Moroccan troops withdrew - on the condition that Spain stayed well clear of the island too. Thus Isla Perejil (or Leila, as the Moroccans prefer to call it) found itself in a sort of political limbo. Some wag even suggested that the island might constitute itself as an independent republic.