Morocco World News with agencies
Rabat, January 3, 2012
Morocco, together with the UN Security Council member states, will spare no effort to reach a political and consensual solution to the Sahara issue, Morocco’s permanent representatives to the UN, Ambassador Mohamed Loulichki, was quoted by MAP as saying.
Speaking on Monday to the Moroccan TV channel “Al Oula” on the occasion of the taking by Morocco of a non-permanent UN Security Council seat, Loulichki highlighted the need to make the most of the “concrete improvement” in Moroccan-Algerian relations with a view to undertaking further efforts to find a peaceful solution to the artificial Sahara conflict.
Loulichki voiced hope that the recent developments in north Africa will pave the way for a “lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the Sahara issue” on the basis of Morocco’s autonomy proposal and within the framework of the Kingdom’s territorial integrity and unity.
He also added that Morocco will endeavour to serve the Arab, Islamic and African causes in the Security Council.
In April 2007, Morocco presented an Autonomy Plan that was described as “serious and credible” by the Security Council. The said plan proposes significant autonomy for the Sahara with a local government and a parliament, within the Moroccan sovereignty.
The Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, rejects the Moroccan plan and claims the people of the Sahara have a right to self-determination through a referendum.
Over the past two years, Morocco and the Polisario have held 8 informal rounds of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy, Christopher Ross. The last round of negotiations was held in July in New York. All of these negotiations have ended without any progress.
Many analysts voice their concern that the current informal negotiations over the future of the Sahara are leading nowhere and that the Security Council ought to adopt a new approach in order to put an end to this long-lasting dispute.
With the changing geopolitical situation in the Maghreb after the demise of Muammar Gaddafi, the involvement of Polisario militias on behalf of Gaddafi and the implication of some Polisario in terrorist activities, Morocco finds itself in a stronger position than ever before over the past three decades.
