Nyhed -
Moroccan Autonomy Plan for the Sahara enjoys broad support from International Community
The Moroccan Autonomy Plan for the Sahara enjoys the unequivocal support of important and influential UN Member States, which should push more countries to follow this virtuous dynamic.
Several African and Arab countries with the United States, France, Germany and most recently Spain have unequivocally supported the Autonomy Plan as the only option for settling the regional dispute over the Sahara which is hampering regional integration and which threatens security in the Sahelo-Saharan region than the Euro-Mediterranean area.
This broad support comes from the consensus built at UN level. The Moroccan proposal was corroborated by 18 consecutive resolutions where UN Security Council enshrines the pre-eminence of the Autonomy Plan, presented by the Kingdom Morocco on April 11, 2007, and welcomes the serious and credible efforts made by the Kingdom to settle the Sahara Conflict. The latest is resolution 2602 adopted on October 27, 2021.
It goes without saying that the virtuous momentum experienced by the Moroccan proposal is the obvious and natural outcome of the evolution of the Sahara issue at regional and international levels but above all on the ground, with the accomplishment of more than 80% of the projects of scope of the New Development Model for the Southern Provinces totalling an envelope of more than 8.8 billion dollars and with the opening of 25 Consulates General, the last being that of a regional organization of Eastern Caribbean States, confirming the irreversibility of the Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara.
No offense to the opponents of Moroccan sovereignty and unity, the Security Council is clear in its realistic and pragmatic approach to definitely settle this artificial dispute.
Artificial because the so called “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic” that the Algiers-funded separatist group of “polisario” claim does not in reality exist on the ground. It is a pantomime state that does not meet the criteria for statehood under international law as laid down in Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, 1933.
The territory it claims is, in reality, under the practical sovereignty of Morocco since 1975, with the local population’s participation rate that reached 66.94% in the region of Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra in the last national election of September 2021, the highest of any region in the Kingdom.
At a time when Security Council members are calling for the relaunch of the round table process endorsed by UNSC resolutions for the fourth consecutive time in order to settle the conflict, as was the case on 20th April 2022 during the annual briefing on the Moroccan Sahara conflict by the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, Algeria continues to oppose the UN-led process and challenge the international community.
This proves, once again, the ultimately responsible for the status quo of the conflict, for the mortgage of the future of an entire population detained in inhuman conditions in the camps of Tindouf and for the recruitment of children in armed groups and their de facto deprivation of the most basic rights.
This is what the international community must vigorously denounce.
