The arrests were made in the towns of Hellin on the south east coast close to the city of Murcia. The detainees are two Spaniards and two Moroccans. The Spanish Interior Ministry has informed that five houses have been searched as part of the ongoing operation.

The ministry added one of the Moroccan detainees had an order against his entering Spain and is not thought to have been involved in trafficking explosives.

Although there have not been any indication of links between the two operations, these arrests come just over two weeks after Spanish police made the arrest of two men accused of being Islamic terrorists.

Nou Mediouni, who is Algerian and Hassan El Jaaouani, who is Moroccan, were detained in Zaragoza and Murcia on April 23 after a joint operation with French and Moroccan security forces.

The Interior Ministry highlighted that Mediouni and El Jaaouani had similar profiles to the terrorists of Chechen origin behind the recent Boston bombings and had links to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Moroccan terrorists linked to Al Qaeda were responsible for the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, which claimed over 190 lives in the Spanish capital.

Asked by APS on these allegations, the Pentagon spokesman for Africa, Robert Firman, said that the recent deployment of U.S. Marines to the military base of Moron (Spain) tends to ’’ improve the ability of the U.S. to respond to potential crises in West Africa.’’

In fact, he said, "in response to the terrorist attacks perpetrated in Libya, last year, the United States are working to improve their ability to rapidly respond to the crisis situations around the world.’’

Therefore, ’’the arrival of U.S. Marines to Moron Air Base of Spain will improve the ability of the United States to respond to potential crises in West Africa’’ and, in this case,’’ they will able to undertake a series of missions, like those of humanitarian aids, relief and support to the US embassies’’ in West Africa, he argued.

In addition to this denial by the U.S. Department of Defense to allegations of Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, it’s worth to remind that Algeria had also dubbed, through its Foreign Ministry spokesman Amar Belani, "totally unfounded and absurd" the content of this article.

"The article published in Al Quds Al Arabi by a well-known journalist is a tissue of malicious nonsense and a spiteful reference to the political situation and stability in Algeria, and is totally unfounded and absurd," Belani said Saturday.

"The measures cited in the article are not meant against our country in particular and they do not concern our country at all," he added.

More than half of Morocco's 9 million annual arrivals come from just two countries, Spain and France, but both have suffered economic crises and there have been drops in the number of people coming from those nations.

Lahcen Haddan told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday that Morocco is hoping to attract more visitors from Britain, Germany, and Saudi Arabia.

Tourism contributes 8 percent of Morocco's GDP and is a top earner of foreign currency.

After years of steady increases, economic troubles in Europe and political upheaval in North Africa have kept tourism growth flat in Morocco over the past two years.

In the  the euro bloc 19.7 million are unemployed ,however there is a pronounced difference between the North which is generally more stable and the South which is experiencing extreme unemployment difficulties, as  the German magazine Spiegel reports.

Whilst  Austria, Germany and Luxembourg have under 6 per cent  unemployment Greece and Spain have over 26 per cent each and Portugal is 17.5 percent. Youth unemployment is particulalry high with well over 50 per cent in Greece and Spain with Portugal and  Italy just under 40 per cent. Whilst Germany has 7.7 youth unemployment the Eurozone average is  23.9 per cent.

The article raises the question of the Eurozone's global  economic competivity as its growth rate is still contracting  and China and the US are both posting higher growth figures. As thousands of jobs go in Cyprus following the bail out deal, questions are mounting as to whether austerity policies are working .

To meet this energy deficit Morocco has launched plans for solar and wind energy and Ouarzazate is key for this development . If they are successful, the renewable energy plans could be a big boost to the economy. It is reckoned that solar and wind energy could eventually cut Morocco's annual imports of hydrocarbons by the equivalent of 2.5 million tonnes of oil, according to  ONEE. Imports jumped 10 percent in 2012 to 19.7 million tonnes equivalent,  according to  according to the ministry of energy. As well as the cost of fuel imports the price of electricity for companies and the population is also high.

Morocco wants to export some of its renewable energy to Europe via undersea cables.  However the cost of electricity in Morocco remains higher than in Spain and the original plan for the Desertec project has hit snags because of the cost of developing the project in the light of the euro zone financial crisis which shows no sign of abating.

Operating solar plants in the arid south of Morocco could put pressure on local water resources. Financing some of the renewable energy projects could be a problem, especially as it is unclear whether they will generate power cheaply enough to be exported.Morocco will have to attract considerable international funding to achieve these projects.

Morocco hopes that by 2020, 40 percent or more of its electricity generating capacity will be in the form of renewable sources such as solar and wind.The Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN)  has awarded a $1 billion contract to a consortium led by Saudi International Company for Water and Power (ACWA) for an initial project at Ouarzazate.Now MASEN is soliciting bids for another solar facility at Ouarzazate with a capacity of 300 MW. The deadline to submit expressions of interest is March 25.

Windpower development does not have the same environmental considerations in Morocco. ONEE has already installed 250 MW across the country and plans many more facilities. Nareva Holding, the energy arm of investment company SNI, is taking a prominent role.GDF Suez in a consortium with Nareva,  said it would start to build Africa's largest wind farm, with output of 300 MW, in Morocco's southern desert. Investment will total around 540 million euros partly financed by 360 million euros of loans from three Moroccan banks.

Obtaining  finance for  renewable projects will depend on their competivity with other forms of energy and Morocco is also developing coal fired plants in Safi and Jorf Lasfar. Renewable energy projects will have to compete on price. At the moment windpower is cost effective according to ONEE. 

It would seem that exporting electrictiy to Europe may not be possible for the forseeable future as electricity is produced more cheaply in Spain than in Morocco  and this is unlikely  to change. Spain has a highly developed renewable network. However  Solar and Windpower will have an  important role in generating electricty for Morocco though the key factor will be the cost of the electricity they produce to the consumer.