MADRID: Ecuador has warned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
not to interfere in Catalonia’s separatist crisis, Ecuadorian President
Lenin Moreno said in an interview published on Sunday.
Assange,
who has been holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London for the past five
years, has angered Madrid by using Twitter to pump out messages of
support for Catalonia’s independence drive and accuse Spain’s central
government of “repression”.
Spanish Foreign Minister
Alfonso Dastis has said there were signs that Assange was “trying to
interfere and manipulate” amid the Catalan crisis after the outspoken
Australian met last month with a prominent Catalan pro-independence
figure.
“We do not want to intervene under any
circumstances with respect to Catalonia. We hope the problem is
resolved as soon as possible for the benefit of all Spaniards,” Moreno
told top-selling Spanish daily El Pais.
“We have
reminded Mr Assange that he has no reason to interfere in Ecuadorian
politics because his status does not allow it. Nor in that of nations
that are our friends. He does not have the right to do so and he has
committed himself to this.”
Last month Ecuador’s foreign
ministry said it had told Assange to avoid making statements “that
could affect Ecuador’s international relations” with Spain and other
nations.
Moreno begins a three-day official visit to
Spain on Sunday with a meeting with Ecuadorian immigrants in Madrid. He
is scheduled to hold talks with Spain’s King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy on Monday.
Assange has been
living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012 after seeking
asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face a rape allegation.
