The king of Morocco, Mohamed VI, warns that your country will not maintain commercial relations with those countries that have “vague or ambivalent positions” on the Moroccan character of Western Sahara.
“To those who hold vague or ambivalent positions, we declare that Morocco will not compromise with them in any economic or commercial approach that excludes the Moroccan Sahara “, said the Alawite monarch, during his official speech on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the Green March.
Mohamed VI has thus referred, veiled, to the judgments of the General Court of the European Union which annulled the EU’s fisheries agreement with Morocco for including Western Sahara and the tariff advantages that the bloc grants to the importation of agricultural and fishing products from the former Spanish colony.
In his speech, he reaffirmed Morocco’s commitment to the ceasefire signed in 1991 with the Polisario Front and to the negotiation process sponsored by the UN to resolve the Sahara conflict, but he warned that “the Moroccan character of the Sahara will never be on the agenda of any negotiation“If we enter into negotiations, it is mainly to achieve a peaceful solution to this artificial regional conflict,” he asserted.
On the other hand, Mohamed VI has defended as a “peaceful action” the eviction by the Moroccan military of Saharawi activists from the Guerguerat pass and the road that connects Morocco with Mauritania in November 2020. An action considered as a violation of the high ground the fire on the part of the Polisario Front, which has therefore terminated it.
He also highlighted the fact that the new US Administration of Joe Biden has maintained the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara decided by Donald Trump. “It confirms the irreversible nature of the ongoing political process: launching a final solution based on the Autonomy Initiative, under Moroccan sovereignty,” stated the monarch, who has ruled that “the Moroccan character of the Sahara is a truth as enduring as it is immutable“.
Without mention of the crisis with Algeria
On the other hand, Mohamed VI has omitted in his speech the current climbing of tension between your country and Algeria, aggravated after Algiers accused Rabat last Wednesday of killing three of its citizens in a bombing in the Saharawi territory.
In addition, Algeria closed on October 31 the Maghreb Europe gas pipeline (GME), which for 25 years supplied Spain and Portugal through Moroccan territory.
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
