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Rabat – Several Italian parties formed a parliamentary group on Monday May 30 to support Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for the Sahara.
Citing the growing support for the Moroccan autonomy proposal in the Arab world, Africa, and other regions, Italian MPs Marco Di Maio and Urania Papatheu said in a statement that Morocco’s plan has “started a positive dynamic for the Sahara.”
“Our objective is to reinforce the United Nations’ efforts to reach a pragmatic, political, and realistic solution based on compromise,” they added. “Numerous European states consider the autonomy plan as the most serious and credible solution to put an end to this dispute.”
The Italian politicians also said the Western Sahara dispute is one of the most pressing issues preventing North African states from uniting and facing common challenges for the region and the African continent, such as terrorism and climate change.
Di Maio and Papatheu cited the recent visit of Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio in April, who said Morocco is a strategic partner and “key interlocutor on regional issues.”
Morocco proposed the Autonomy Plan to the UN in 2007, suggesting that the country’s Southern Provinces retain a degree of economic and political independence under Moroccan sovereignty.
Over the past years, the Moroccan proposal has been widely lauded in the international community as the most pragmatic and only viable way out of the lingering dispute over the Western Sahara region. Most recently, the proposal has garnered critical support from the United States, Spain, and Germany.
