"Morocco and the European Union have long-standing relations and member states are well aware of the importance of this strategic partnership, with Morocco being ahead of many other countries with respect to open-mindedness and making commitments at political, democratic and economical levels," Taib Fassi Fihri told the European Parliament's Foreign-Affairs Commission.

    In this connection, the minister said that Morocco in no way considers the neighbourliness policy with the EU as interference in its domestic affairs.

   On the recent events of Laayoune, which resulted in several casualties among the Moroccan security forces but no civilian death was documented during the dismantling of the camp, Fassi Fihri noted that these incidents are part of a plot hatched by Morocco’s adversaries to block negotiations on the Sahara. 

    ''Morocco does not request favouritism, let alone unreserved support of the European Union. We ask the European Parliament for a clear, serene analysis and pertinent conclusions on the events of Laayoune, which was not unfortunately reflected in the biased and unfair resolution, hastily adopted by this institution," he said.

    Fassi Fihri noted that the Kingdom welcomed international NGHOs, particularly Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international and the International Federation for Human Rights, as well as Moroccan independent NGOs to seek the truth.

    Moreover, he recalled that the Moroccan Parliament formed a parliamentary commission of inquiry into Laayoune events.

    Morocco demands the truth so that the European Parliament no longer gets misled by people who have long chosen to provide blind support to the enemies of the Kingdom, he insisted.

    Fassi Fihri highlighted the position of the Moroccan people who peacefully expressed, through the memorable march organized last Sunday in Casablanca, their total rejection of this misleading campaign aimed at undermining Morocco’s interests and the negotiating process designed to settle, once and for all, the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.

    The campaign, he went on, is part of a strategic plan prepared by Algeria and the Polisario since 2007 to divert the international community’s attention and thwart the UN-sponsored negotiating process.

    In this regard, Fassi Fihri, who recalled that the United Nations has, since 2004, noted the inapplicability of a referendum, challenged whoever to find in the resolutions of the UN Security Council any reference to the referendum, which remains a rare mechanism in the UN practice.

    The minister denounced the partial stance of some MEPs who take offence at imaginary human casualties, but remain indifferent to the real victims of the polisario, including dozens of Spanish fishermen killed by the polisario during the 1970s and 1980s.