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Tuesday 4 December 2018

Round Table on Moroccan Sahara Offers Opportunity to Settle Issue of Confidence-building Measures: State Secretary

Vocal synthesis
Round Table on Moroccan Sahara Offers Opportunity to Settle Issue of Confidence-building Measures: State Secretary

The round table on the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, to take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva, offers the opportunity to settle the issue of confidence-building measures, said Monday State Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mounia Boucetta.


The Security Council Resolution N° 2440, adopted on October, 31, 2018, marks a significant step forward, especially as it stresses the need to open a new chapter in the settlement process with a view to reaching a political, consensual, realistic and sustainable solution, Boucetta pointed out at the House of Representatives (lower house).

In this regard, she underlined that the autonomy initiative proposed by Morocco remains the only realistic solution to the Sahara issue.

Boucetta explained that the resolution recognizes Algeria’s central role as a party invited to the Geneva Round Table, noting that the text has dealt a hard blow to the "myth of liberated territories".

The Security Council, she said, urged the Polisario, and behind it Algeria, not to transfer its structures to the east of the defense system, including Guergarat, Tifariti and Bir Lahlou, adding that this is the first time that these areas are mentioned in a resolution, a fact that reveals the credibility of the Moroccan position.

The same resolution reaffirms the parameters of the political process, defined since 2007, and consolidates all the achievements made by Morocco in the sense that it recognizes the pre-eminence of the autonomy initiative, and welcomes the Kingdom's serious and credible efforts to reach a political solution to this artificial conflict and calls for the census of the populations of the Tindouf camps, she added.

A Moroccan delegation will travel to Geneva to take part on Dec. 5-6 in a round table on the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.

The participation of this Moroccan delegation takes place following the invitation sent by the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General Horst Köhler on September, 28, 2018, and November 23, 2018, to Morocco, Algeria, the "Polisario" and Mauritania.

MAP 04 December 2018