In New York, the delegation will renew its appeal to other parties "to dispose of their blocking position and strategy of deflection," said AFP quoting a Moroccan official source.
The second informal preparatory meeting for the 5th round of negotiations aimed at finding a political and final solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara will start Wednesday in the town of Armonk, in the vicinity of New York at the invitation of 'Secretary General's Personal Envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross.
Morocco will seize this opportunity to demonstrate once again that "the approach based on a referendum is unworkable and that it was buried once and for all," said AFP.
«Referendum is a minority option in the UN practice; the majority of cases have been resolved through negotiations between the parties," said the same source.
"Rabat calls on the Polisario and Algeria to work in New York for a realistic and achievable solution bringing peace and stability for the five North African countries and promoting progress and prosperity to their people," said AFP.
The second informal meeting on the Sahara is part of the implementation of Security Council resolutions, including UN resolutions 1813 and 1871, adopted in April 2008 and April 2009.
These resolutions call on all parties to engage in intensive and substantial negotiations, taking into account the efforts made by the Kingdom since 2006, and to demonstrate realism and a spirit of compromise to achieve a political solution to the regional dispute concerning the Moroccan Sahara.
The second informal meeting also comes after four rounds, held in Manhasset in 2007 and 2008 under the auspices of the former Personal Envoy of UN Secretary General, Peter Van Walsum.
In this context, the Moroccan delegation will show its willingness to negotiate a final compromise on the basis of the Moroccan autonomy initiative, whose rule has been clearly underlined by the Security Council.
It will insist on the relevance of this initiative, stress the democratic process that led to its development, present substantial content, demonstrate its compliance with international law and analyze its regional importance.
Like during the other meetings, Morocco will highlight the obsolete proposal of Polisario, its outdated content, its biased reading to the principle of self-determination and its philosophy contrary to guidance given by the Security Council and desired by the international community to solve this regional dispute.
While focusing on the inapplicability of a referendum, the delegation will show that the use of referendums is a minority option in the UN practice, the majority of cases were resolved through negotiations between the parties.
Similarly, international experience teaches that the principle of self-determination has been satisfied in almost all cases through negotiation and rarely by the referendum.
A statement from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation said that the Moroccan delegation to this meeting will be composed of Taib Fassi Fihri, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mohamed Yassine Mansouri, Director General of Studies and Documentation and Maouelainin Khalihanna Maouelainin, Secretary General of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS).
Source: MAP
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