Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told the Envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura that Morocco’s government is not prepared to elaborate on the Autonomy proposal while round table discussions with other parties involved in the Western Sahara conflict have not been convened.
“Moroccan Foreign Minister Bourita further shared his sense that the time had not come for his government to elaborate on their proposal,” stated an advanced copy of the Report of the Secretary-General on the situation concerning Western Sahara.
Bourita told de Mistura when he visited Morocco in July that details on the Autonomy proposal can only see light after roundtables with the participation of Morocco, Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania, “for a discussion to be based exclusively on the Moroccan proposal and in the context of Morocco’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
In Algiers, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra and Special Envoy for Western Sahara Amar Belani reiterated the Algerian position that the issue was one related to decolonization.
Algerian interlocutors furthermore reaffirmed that Algeria be considered along with Mauritania as a “concerned neighbor” and expressed doubts about the roundtable process and any effort they might see as aiming to reframe the situation as a “regional
conflict”
In Mauritanian, President Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani and new Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug reiterated the principle of their country’s « positive neutrality » while signaling readiness to assist his efforts when circumstances would be conducive to progress.
In response to the statement made during the UN General Assembly by Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, in which he called on the UN and the SG’s Personal Envoy for the Moroccan Sahara to resume the UN process, the Moroccan delegation called on Algeria to resume the round-table process.
“The Kingdom of Morocco launches, in turn, an appeal to Algeria to resume its place around the round tables as it has already done during the two previous meetings,” said the Moroccan delegation in its response.
“Morocco recovered its Sahara, in 1975, through negotiation, in a peaceful manner, and in accordance with the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations,” the Moroccan delegation recalled.
The delegation also pointed out that the Security Council, which “is the only body responsible for considering the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, has established once and for all, the parameters of the political solution that should preside over the final settlement of this regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.”
These parameters are clearly defined in the 18 consecutive resolutions of the Security Council since 2007, including Resolution 2602, adopted on October 29, 2021, stressed the Moroccan delegation.
These parameters include – the pre-eminence of the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, the only serious and credible solution to this regional dispute, within the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco, – the solution of this dispute can only be political, realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and compromise.
“Round-table discussions are clearly affirmed and reaffirmed in all Security Council resolutions, and this since their establishment in 2018, by the former Personal Envoy, President Horst Köhler” and – the Security Council resolutions define the four participants in the round-table process, which are Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and “Polisario”.
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