In the text of this legislation, the committee described Ceuta and Melilla as “Spanish-administered cities” and encouraged the State Department to push Spain and Morocco to discuss their “future status”. Conceivably, the Moroccan authorities were emboldened by such US backing to use the Ceuta crisis to pressure Spain to concede that the future of these territories is a matter for negotiation. The relationship between Spain and Morocco is therefore unlikely to change in the aftermath of this event. Painfully aware of this vulnerability, Madrid is unlikely to challenge Rabat’s role or blame it for the recent migration crisis. For Morocco, reclaiming Ceuta and Melilla will remain a key foreign policy objective.