United Nations - Morocco "sees no alternative to negotiations on the Autonomy Initiative" to settle the ‘Western Sahara’ issue, Morocco's Ambassador, permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, said Tuesday.
United Nations – Morocco “sees no alternative to negotiations on the Autonomy Initiative” to settle the ‘Western Sahara’ issue, Morocco’s Ambassador, permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, said Tuesday.
“This is no take it or leave it. It is negotiable, amendable and improved. However, it cannot be ruled out, set aside or substituted by any other proposal,” the Moroccan diplomat said before the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee.
He underlined that this Initiative is the result of a national approach of inclusive and participatory consultations, involving all political, social, economic and academic stakeholders, as well as the true representatives of the people living in the southern provinces in their tribal, generational and gender components. Which gives it an “unquestionable and unwavering national legitimacy”, he stressed.
This initiative has also been the subject of intense and deep discussions with regional and international partners of Morocco, he added.
Hilale recalled that the UN Security Council deemed the initiative “serious” and “credible” in successive resolutions since 2007, thus highlighting its “preeminence as an appropriate solution” to this regional dispute.
Tackling the tragic situation in Tindouf camps, the diplomat deplored the “silence” of the international community on the “lawlessness” situation in Tindouf camps, where people are deprived of their basic rights.
He also regretted that the host country “continues to refuse to carry out the census” of the populations in the camps, as required by its international obligations, which must be a matter of concern to the international community.
“In its successive resolutions, the Security Council asked UNHCR to undertake this statutory obligation. Populations in Tindouf camps are the only ones in the world who are neither identified nor recorded. And nobody knows their exact number,” Hilale said before the 193 members States of the UN General Assembly.
