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Friday, March 29, 2024
Major Event

A visiting Moroccan delegation on Tuesday briefed top officials at the White House and the US State department on Morocco's proposal to grant its Southern Provinces, known as the Sahara, a substatial autonomy, part of its efforts to put an end to the three-decade long Sahara dispute with the Algerian-backed separatist movement "Polisario".


The delegation including Minister of the Interior, Chakib Benmoussa, minister-delegate for foreign affairs and cooperation, Taib Fassi Fihri, minister-delegate to the Interior, Fouad Ali El Himma, Director general of the Direction Générale des Etudes et de la Documentation (Morocco's intelligence) , had already visited Paris and Madrid part of a tour to Western capitals to explain the Moroccan proposal.

During  talks with the US officials, the delegation emphasized that the autonomy proposal "meets all international standards, respects fuly the international legality and is part of the project of a modern and democratic society ushered by King Mohammed VI."

The autonomy proposal which was described by French President Jacques Chirac as "constructive",  is being devised in response to the "repetaed appeals of the (UN) Security Council to the parties and to the States of the region to overcome the current stalemate",  the delegation insisted.

Morocco retrived the Sahara in 1975 by virtue of the Madrid Accords signed with the former colonial power, Spain, and Mauritania. The Polisario, a separatist movement made up of Moroccan Sahara natives, pretending to represent the local populations, opposed the Accords and triggered, with the help of Algeria, a war against Morocco that lasted until 1991 when a UN-brokered ceasefire was concluded between the two warrying parties.

The Moroccan delegation made it clear that the autonomy proposal would preserve the “sociocultural specifities” of the region “in the framework of the Kingdom’s national unity and sovereignty;”.

Talks also focused on the “ role and responsibilities” of the UN to reach a final and political solution to this dispute that is affecting the whole North West African region.

 

 

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