Morocco, which currently holds the position of non-permanent member at the UN Security Council is determined to ensure that the autonomy proposal remains the only platform for negotiations on the Sahara issue, said Foreign Minister, Saad El Dine Othmani.
Mr. El Othmani during the commission debate at the House of Representatives
Unlike the referendum option to which the other party is attached and which failed since 1999, the Moroccan initiative draws its strength from the fact that it complies with international standards and international law, explained the Minister who presented last Friday, the budget sector of his department for the year 2012, before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. In this observation made few days after the ninth round of informal talks in Manhasset, El Othmani says in this connection that since 2007, Morocco has achieved a remarkable breakthrough thanks to the Moroccan autonomy initiative which received broad support from the International community describing it "as realistic, serious and credible".
Moroccan diplomacy, he added, will continue its actions in favor of withdrawal of recognition to the so-called Sahrawi Republic "SADR" and its diplomatic isolation, adding that in ten years, the number of states having withdrawn their recognition has reached 34 countries, including 10 in Africa alone and the same number in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The head of the Moroccan diplomacy has also stressed the need to involve representatives of the Saharawi population in the southern provinces to the UN-led negotiations, and thus put an end to the idea imposed by the Polisario to be the sole legitimate representative of Sahrawis.
On the humanitarian front, the Minister stressed the commitment of his department to work towards assisting the High Commissioner for Refugees to conduct a census of the population in Tindouf camps with the aim to guarantee its humanitarian law to the international legal protection.
He stressed the importance of supporting programs concerning confidence-building measures taken under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, that allowed people to find their relatives in southern provinces within the framework of visits exchange, and that broke the siege imposed upon them by the Polisario, thus alleviating their inhumane and dramatic conditions in these camps.
Mr. El Othmani talking about the Maghreb and the Sahara issue
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