Official Highlights Diplomatic Successes in Issue of Territorial Integrity

The Minister Delegate in charge of Moroccans living abroad Nezha El Ouafi highlighted, on Tuesday in Rabat, the huge diplomatic successes of the Kingdom concerning the issue of territorial integrity.

In response to a question on the situation in El Guerguarat, asked by the haraki group in the House of Advisors, El Ouafi explained that “Morocco is in a new situation and a particular context, thanks to the wise and decisive approach of HM King Mohammed VI in the management of the national issue”, adding that the Kingdom had successive diplomatic successes, starting with an unprecedented diplomatic synergy, through the opening of 19 consulates in Dakhla and Laâyoune, the securing of the El Guerguarat crossing and the American decision on the recognition of the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over its Sahara.

After emphasizing the legitimate intervention of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) to secure the El Guerguarat crossing, the Minister Delegate considered that this operation put an end to the dangerous acts of destabilization which threaten security and peace throughout the region.

She also recalled that more than 75 States welcomed the peaceful operation carried out by the FAR and which made it possible to restore the normal flow of civil and commercial movement in this crossing, noting that since this operation, Algeria did not stop disseminating fake news on the situation in the Moroccan Sahara, which Moroccans, inside and abroad, have refuted.

El Ouafi concluded that, in accordance with the High Royal Instructions, the government is working, within the framework of its participatory and consultation approach with all national institutions, including the legislative institution, political parties and all components of Moroccan society, in favor of the mobilization of all efforts to consolidate the successes of the Kingdom.

In addition, in response to an oral question on “the denunciation of legal, humanitarian and moral violations in the Tindouf camps”, by the justice and development group at the House of Advisors, El Ouafi said that the Kingdom is intensifying its efforts in forums with international interlocutors and stakeholders to urge them to push Algeria as the host country, since the Tindouf camps are located on its soil, to recognize the legal responsibility of these camps, and conduct a headcount of the populations in captivity in these camps, noting that this question concerns the humanitarian aspect of the artificial regional conflict over the Moroccan Sahara.

The Minister said that Morocco benefits from strong and continuous international support to denounce the violations of the rights of the populations held captive in these camps, recalling, in this regard, the position of the Human Rights Committee, under the UN Human Rights Council in 2018, which expressed, in its observations on Algeria’s report on the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, its concern over the transfer of the prerogatives of the Algerian state, including its legal powers, to the “polisario”.

The United Nations Secretary-General expressed the same concern in a Security Council report in October 2018, noting, in the same context, the support of the international community for the legitimacy of the Moroccan position concerning the registration of the populations held against its will in Tindouf, noted the government official.

The Minister Delegate also underscored the strong support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which adopted in September 2018, the same position, pending a precise registration of the inhabitants of the camps.

“The mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council have become more interactive with individual reports on violations of the rights of populations in captivity in the Tindouf camps, on Algerian soil, as was clearly shown by a resolution of the Human Rights Committee of the Human Rights Council, published in November 2020”, she stressed.