Rabat – Morocco’s King Advisor for Foreign Affairs met Chairperson of the African Union Commission to present an official request to return to the African Union.
A meeting was held between Tayeb Fassi-Fihri, Mohammed VI’s adviser, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission in New York today, September 23, on the sideline of the UN General Assembly..
Morocco’s request to rejoin the African Union is expected to be on the agenda during the next AU summit, which will take place in Addis-Ababa next January.
The presence of the king’s advisor and not the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Salaheddine Mezouar signals that the king is personally monitoring the initiative.
Last July, Morocco’s king, King Mohammed VI, formally stated Morocco’s intention to return to the African Union in a message to the AU summit in Rwanda, and urged the UN to reconsider the membership of the self-proclaimed SADR.
One day after the Moroccan monarch’s announcement, 28 member states welcomed the decision in a motion. Signatories of the motion include, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros, the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sao-tome, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo and Zambia.
A number of African presidents have expressed their support for the initiative. In this regard, Senegalese President Macky Sall stated:
“Morocco has decided to come back and has requested that international constitutional legality be respected in accordance with the United Nations where the Western Sahara is not represented as an independent state.”
President Hery Rajaonarimampianina of Madagascar also “welcomed” Morocco’s decision and promises that he will “work to ensure that this legitimate return be effective as soon as possible.”
