In a presentation before the Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Islamic Affairs Committee, Fassi Fihri said that Morocco will participate in the third informal meeting, "building on this approach that confirms the autonomy initiative as consultation-based, relevant and consistent with the international law, breaking with the unilateral thesis of self-determination which is exclusively based on the referendum option, as an exceptional and rarely used UN practice."
This negotiations approach, he went on, undermines the will of Morocco's opponents to return to square one or deviate from the logic of continuity in light of the conclusions reached by the former UN Secretary General's Personal Envoy for the Sahara, who concluded that the option of independence is not feasible.
The minister recalled that HM King Mohammed VI reaffirmed, during the audience that the Sovereign recently granted in Casablanca to the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy for the Sahara, Christopher Ross, Morocco’s sincere commitment to cooperating with the UN to engage in serious and fruitful negotiations in order to achieve a lasting and consensual political solution to this conflict, in accordance with the Security Council resolutions which call for substantive negotiations between the parties, taking into account the efforts made by Morocco since 2006.
Fassi Fihri underlined that the issue of Morocco’s territorial integrity has recently seen major developments thanks to the talks that HM King Mohammed VI had with the UN Secretary-General on the sidelines of his participation in the 65th session of the UN General Assembly.
Similarly, he added, Christopher Ross paid, in late October, his fourth visit to the region, proposed by the sovereign.
At a time when Morocco deals constructively with the UN resolutions and endeavours to create the appropriate conditions for meaningful negotiations, the enemies of the Kingdom’s territorial integrity still stick to obsolete theses to deviate the negotiations process from its normal path, the minister said.
He added that they are strongly supported in this by the Algerian government, which stubbornly holds on to its negative and hostile stance, ignoring the Security Council resolutions which calls on neighbouring countries to cooperate with the UN and with one other to end this conflict.
These campaigns are orchestrated while these parties are experiencing a state of trouble, aggressive escalation and unprecedented confusion, especially with the growing support that the Moroccan initiative enjoys at the bilateral level as well as in the regional and international forums, the minister said.
Fassi Fihri noted that this state is added to the decision of several countries to withdraw their recognition of the so-called “SADR”. These are the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia as well as Guinea Bissau and Burundi.
This brings to thirty the number of countries who have withdrawn their recognition of the so-called SADR since the year 2000 (11 in Africa, 9 in Latin America, 8 in Asia and two in Europe).
Source: MAP
-News concerning Western Sahara issue/ Corcas