The statement was made on the fringes of a meeting with a visiting Moroccan delegation composed of Foreign minister Mohamed Benaissa and Chairman of the Royal Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) Khalihenna Ould Errachid.
He also described as "very positive" "the first reaction" of his country to this proposal, noting that Columbia "backs the efforts aiming to reach a final solution" to this regional dispute.
This project is meant to settle once for all the dispute over the former Spanish colony that was ceded by Madrid to the Kingdom under the 1975 Madrid Accord. The Polisario separatists, backed by Morocco’s eastern neighbor, Algeria, are seeking independence of the territory.
Earlier, Columbian House of Representatives expressed “support to the proposal of HM king Mohammed VI to grant substantial autonomy to the Southern Provinces of Morocco under its sovereignty in order to put an end to the regional dispute” over the Sahara.
In a motion adopted unanimously on March 13, the lower house of the Columbian parliament voiced “solidarity with the Kingdom of Morocco in its efforts to find a political, final and consensual solution” to the conflict that persists since the mid-Seventies because of the Polisario claims to the Sahara.
The document was presented, Tuesday, to visiting Moroccan delegation, dispatched by king Mohammed VI to explain the autonomy plan to south American capitals.
Their tour is part of Morocco’s action to drum up support of world capitals for the plan before submitting it to the UN next month.
Another CORCAS delegation flew on the same day to Brussels where it met with several European officials and MPs.
The delegation was scheduled to take part, today (Wednesday), in a debate on the Sahara issue that was planned by the European Parliament delegation in charge of relations with the Maghreb countries, before this latter decided to postpone the debate following its refusal of the CORCAS delegation participation in the event.
The decision sparked off strong indignation from Morocco, which condemned, through its ambassador before the European community, Menouar Alem, the decision as a flagrant bias that goes against the spirit of dialog and exchange, and called on the chief of the EP delegation, Luisa Fernanda Rudi Ubeda, to conform to her duty of neutrality and impartiality.