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Rabat- The Swedish Parliament’s (Riksdag) Committee on Foreign Affairs has presented its annual report on the situation in the MENA region for the years 2016-2018, in which it stated Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara could be the basis for “negotiation.”
The Committee’s report has referred for the first time to Morocco’s proposed Autonomy Plan to reach an agreed upon and mutually acceptable political solution to the Western Sahara dispute.
While 20 MPs of the leftist party in the Swedish Parliament voted in favor of holding a referendum to determine the fate of the territory, 221 members of the Swedish Parliament voted against it.
On the other hand, the Committee on Foreign Affairs showed support for the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, known by its French acronym as MINURSO, and acclaimed its efforts invested in peace-making to end the decades-long conflict between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario over the territory.
The vote comes in stark contrast to Sweden’s attempts to recognize the self-styled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the fall of 2015. The swift and firm reaction of the Moroccan government coupled with Sweden’s economic interests in Morocco deterred Swedish officials from making any move against Morocco’s territorial integrity.
