He King Mohamed VI of Morocco declared that the referendum on the sovereignty of Western Sahara is “inapplicable” and demanded that the United Nations “take responsibility” on this issue, as part of Rabat’s defense of its draft territorial autonomy plan.
The Moroccan monarch indicated in a speech on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Green March that this 1975 initiative had enabled “recover the Moroccan Sahara”, before emphasizing that “Morocco has since succeeded in consolidating a tangible reality and an irreversible truth” on the ground.
“There is growing international recognition in favor of Moroccanness of the (Western) Saharain addition to the broad support for the autonomy initiative”, he declared, while affirming that “parallel to this situation of legality, there unfortunately exists another world separated from the truth which still lives in the illusions of pass”.
In this sense, he placed in this second path “those who continue to demand a referendum, although they have been abandoned by the UN and are inapplicable”, in reference to the Polisario Front, which he does not mention in his speech and that he accuses of “refusing to allow a census of people detained in the Tindouf (refugee) camps, which he is taking hostage”.
“It’s time that The UN assumes its responsibility and clarify the big difference between the real and legal world that Morocco represents in its Sahara and the petrified world, far from reality and its developments,” declared Mohamed VI, quoted by the Moroccan state press agency MAP.
The King of Morocco also denounced the existence of actors who “take advantage of the (Western) Sahara issue to achieve an exit from the Atlantic Ocean”, in a veiled reference to the Algerian authorities, and maintained that Rabat ” Don’t see any objection.”
“Morocco, as everyone knows, proposed an international initiative to facilitate a access of Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean“, within the framework of association, cooperation and the achievement of the desired development for all the peoples of the region”, he explained.
Likewise, he regretted that others “use the (Western) Sahara issue to hide their many internal problems”, also in apparent reference to Algeria.
“Others seek to divert legal aspects for the benefit of narrow political objectives. To these, we say that Morocco’s legal associations and commitments will never be to the detriment of its territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” he pointed out.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite the resistance of the Polisario Front, with whom he remained at war until 1991, when both sides signed a ceasefire with a view to holding a self-determination referendum.
Divergences over the preparation of the census and the inclusion or not of Moroccan settlers have prevented its convening until now.
The latest setback for the Sahrawi people was the support of the Spanish and French governments for the Moroccan autonomy plan, a change of position described as betrayal by the Polisario Front, which also recalls that Spain is still “de jure” in power. administration of Western Sahara.
Moroccans abroad
In this context, the Moroccan monarch made a call for unity and announced “a new change” in the management of the affairs of Moroccan citizens abroad through “a restructuring of the institutions which take care of their affairs”.
Mohamed VI maintained that the objective is “to avoid interference in powers and the dispersion of actors”, which is why the institutional framework will be based on the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad and the Mohamadia Foundation for foreign Moroccans residing in the country. will be created soon.
Thus, he affirmed that the first body “must fully play its role as a framework for reflection and proposals, reflecting the representativeness of the different components of the community” and requested the “rapid promulgation of the new municipal law, with a view to its installation in a short time.
Concerning the second, the institution will be responsible for “grouping together the skills currently distributed among numerous actors, as well as the coordination, development and implementation of the national strategy in favor of Moroccans living abroad”.
“We would like to see this foundation be able to contribute, with the participation of the ministerial sectors concerned and the various stakeholders, to a strong boost to linguistic, cultural and religious advice members of different generations of this community,” he maintained.
“Among the main challenges that this institution will have to face is the simplification and digitalization of administrative and judicial procedures which concern our children abroad,” he maintained, before banking on “the opening of new horizons ” for Moroccan investments abroad, because “this is a major problem”. “It is not reasonable that their contribution represents only 10% of total national private sector investments.”
