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Rabat – In a meeting with Dutch foreign minister, Morocco’s Foreign minister has reiterated outright refusal of Netherlands’ interference in Morocco’s Rif events.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita handed his Dutch counterpart Stef Bloc a letter in response to his remarks in Dutch Parliament.
Bourita met Bloc at the UN headquarters Friday, September 28, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
In April, Bloc warned Moroccan-Dutch activists to be careful when visiting Morocco because when they are in Morocco, police consider bi-nationals as Moroccans only.
Bloc made his remarks in a parliamentary session in the Netherlands in answer to a Dutch MP’s question about the Moroccan court’s decision to sentence Moroccan activists to up to 20 years in prison.
Bourita emphasized in his yesterday’s letter that Bloc’s act cannot be accepted by Morocco “both in form and content.”
The act “constitutes a flagrant negative position taken against the Kingdom it that it contains some false facts, inadequate terms, erroneous assessments of facts and inappropriate reflections,” the Moroccan minister said according to state-owned news agency Maghreb Press Agency (MAP).
The Moroccan foreign minister stressed that Morocco “has no lessons to receive from anyone and that the Kingdom was able to strengthen its institutions which are the basis and guarantors of its stability.”
In July, Bourita commented on the Netherlands’ remarks saying, “I have made it clear that the Rif’s Hirak is a strictly internal affair and is by no means an object of diplomatic discussion.”
He added that Morocco respects the decisions of Dutch courts, and therefore, “they must respect ours.”
On Tuesday, June 26, Casablanca’s Court of Appeals sentenced Hirak Rif activists to 1 to 20 years in prison. The activists were arrested for their involvement in protests that rocked Al Hoceima in 2016 and 2017.
The activists had been detained for protesting against social disparities in Al Hoceima in 2016 and 2017.
