Places of Sovereignty Last Updated : 2005-08-26 09:29:10 (2914 reads) Spain has five plazas de soberania in or off the coast of Morocco, enclaves (or exclaves, depending on your point of view) belonging to Spain but geographically separated from it. Ceuta and Melilla are the most important, autonomous cities sitting on the north coast of Morocco, which not unsurprisingly covets them. The other three are islands or groups of them: the three Islas Chafarinas, the Peñón de Alhucemas, and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera. They are under direct Spanish administration, and are slightly less contentious. Another islet, though, the Isla Perejil (lit. Parsley Island, though the name is thought to have a different derivation) was the object of a ridiculous military confrontation in 2002, when a handful of Moroccan troops set up camp there (it is normally inhabited only by grazing goats). Spanish armed forces launched a relatively massive, very speedy and completely successful operation to recover sovereignty of the islet, just before Spanish public opinion found out that Spain actually has no legitimate claim over it, though neither does Morocco, hence the dispute. In fact, it is so small and worthless that it was not included in the treaty of Moroccan independence from Spain. The island is now uninhabited again, except for its grazing goats, neither country wanting to risk getting egg on their face again over something so trivial.