Côte d’Ivoire reiterated, in New York, its “full support” for the autonomy plan presented by Morocco in 2007 to definitively settle the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
“Côte d’Ivoire would like to reaffirm its full support for the broad autonomy initiative presented by Morocco,” said the representative of Côte d’Ivoire before the 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly, noting that this Moroccan proposal is in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council, as well as international law.
“This positive approach gives the inhabitants of the Moroccan Sahara important political, economic and social prerogatives”, he noted, adding that the populations of the Moroccan Sahara freely and democratically choose their representatives.
Some of these local elected officials participated in the Geneva round tables as well as in the C24 meetings, recalled the diplomat.
He also reaffirmed his country’s “full” support for the UN Secretary-General and his personal envoy for the Moroccan Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, for their commitment to achieving a lasting and mutually acceptable peaceful political solution to this regional dispute.
The diplomat also commended Morocco’s strong commitment to the political process led under the exclusive auspices of the UN Secretary-General, adding that his country is in favor of relaunching this UN process and “therefore encourages Mr. de Mistura in his efforts to resume the round tables” already organized in Geneva in December 2018 and March 2019.
“The hope raised by these important meetings in which all stakeholders participated deserves to be consolidated,” he said, expressing his country’s support for the Security Council resolutions calling for the organization of other round tables in the same format and with the same participants, namely Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the “polisario”.
He urged all parties to remain mobilized in a spirit of realism and compromise with a view to achieving a peaceful and definitive solution to this regional dispute.
The representative of Côte d’Ivoire welcomed the dynamics of socio-economic development in the southern provinces, stressing that the new development model launched in 2015 consolidates the relevance of the Moroccan autonomy initiative.
He noted that the significant investments benefiting the Moroccan Sahara region have a positive impact on the well-being of the inhabitants and improve development indices.
At the social level, the diplomat stressed that his country welcomes the substantial actions carried out by Morocco with the aim of promoting human rights in the Moroccan Sahara region and hails in this regard the role of the regional commissions of the National Human Rights Council in Dakhla and Laayoune, as well as Morocco’s full cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council.
“These commendable actions by Morocco have rightly been recognized by the Security Council,” he said.
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