Morocco, Sweden Normalize Relations after W.Sahara Spat

Sweden's foreign minister was to hold talks with her Moroccan counterpart in Rabat on Wednesday in a sign of eased tensions after a year-long quarrel over the Western Sahara.

Margot Wallstrom, who arrived on Tuesday, was to meet civil society representatives as well as Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar, the embassy said.

Relations between Rabat and Stockholm have been strained since 2015 over Swedish moves to recognise the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic declared by the pro-independence  Polisario Front.

Sweden's ruling Social Democrats, who voted to recognise Western Sahara as a "free and independent state" while in opposition in 2012, had held an internal consultation on the issue after taking office in 2014.

In September 2015, Morocco blocked a grand opening of the kingdom's first Ikea store, saying it lacked a "conformity permit". 

Local media said the move was in retaliation for Stockholm's position on the disputed territory.

Wallstrom in January announced Sweden would not recognise the Western Sahara as an independent state, but would support UN mediation on the issue. 

Relations have since eased, but sensitivities remain, particularly over the repatriation of unaccompanied Moroccan minors in Sweden. 

Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom despite UN resolutions that task a peacekeeping mission with organising a referendum on self-determination.

The mission was established in 1991 when a ceasefire ended a war that broke out in 1975 when Morocco sent troops to the former Spanish territory and fought the Polisario Front.

Morocco controls all of the territory's main towns confining the Polisario Front to a narrow desert strip in the interior.