Morocco responds to Algeria after controversial statements on the Sahara in the UN Security Council
- A statement "out of context"
- Algeria's "double standards" on self-determination
- Morocco invests in the development of the Sahara
The permanent ambassador of Morocco to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, sent a letter to the President and members of the Security Council in response to a statement by the Secretary General of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Western Sahara during a meeting of the body.
Hilale denounced that the Algerian Secretary General, as usual, "gave free rein to his country's Moroccan phobia and his unhealthy obsession with the Moroccan Sahara", as reported by La Vie Echo.
In this letter, Hilale pointed out that during a recent Security Council debate under the chairmanship of Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, devoted to strengthening Africa's representation in the UN body, the Secretary General of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lounes Magramane, "thought it appropriate to extend his statement to address an issue that is not at all on the agenda of this session".
Given that only members of the Committee of Ten Heads of State and Government of the African Union on Security Council Reform (C10) and representatives of interest groups in intergovernmental negotiations and regional groups were invited to speak during this debate, the ambassador said that Morocco would like to provide the following elements in response to the Algerian delegate's statement.
A statement "out of context"
Hilale denounced that, instead of proposing tangible measures and formulating effective strategies capable of redressing the injustice of Africa's non-representation in the Security Council, the Algerian representative chose "the path of misleading theses, erroneous assertions and false statements". "Obviously, your country is quite obsessed by its Moroccanophobia and its unhealthy obsession with the Moroccan Sahara", the diplomat underlined in this sense.
The Moroccan ambassador to the UN stressed that Algeria, whose candidacy to the Security Council was endorsed by the Summit of African heads of state to defend the legitimate interests of the continent, has chosen to highlight its anti-Moroccan stance instead of defending the African cause.
"The Secretary-General of the Algerian Ministry scandalously lacked respect for His Excellency the President of Sierra Leone, who wanted, in his capacity as President of the C10 of the African Union, to make the cause of Africa's representativeness a flagship event of his country's chairmanship of the Council", explained Hilale, who regretted that the Algerian representative only addressed the Sahara issue during the session.
With regard to the decolonisation raised by the Algerian delegate during the debate, the Moroccan diplomat recalled that the question of Western Sahara "is a question of territorial integrity and national unity of the Kingdom of Morocco".
"Neither history, nor international law, nor the reports of the UN Secretary General, nor the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, and even less the resolutions of the Security Council, designate the Moroccan Sahara as a "colonised territory", declared Hilale.
The diplomat also recalled that the decolonisation of the Sahara was "definitively settled" thanks to the Green March.
"The Moroccan Sahara is the subject of a political process aimed at achieving a realistic, pragmatic, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy, within the exclusive framework of Chapter VI on the peaceful settlement of disputes", the ambassador insisted.
Algeria's "double standards" on self-determination
In response to the question of self-determination raised by Algeria in the case of the Sahara "with the sole aim of preventing its recovery by Morocco", Hilale stressed that Algeria resorts to an "insidious and selective interpretation" of this principle in an attempt to deceive the international community.
"The Algerian delegate consciously omitted to mention that resolution 1514 clearly states that the right to self-determination should in no case compromise the territorial integrity of member states, nor apply to part of a sovereign member state of the UN," the Moroccan diplomat said in his letter of reply.
He further stressed that the Algerian delegate "also pretends to ignore resolution 1541, which sets out the different options for the implementation of resolution 1514 on the principle of self-determination, including free association or integration".
The Moroccan ambassador explained that the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative is a "modern, concrete and democratic" way of exercising the right to self-determination, pointing out that this is why the Security Council has reaffirmed its seriousness and credibility in its 20 successive resolutions since its presentation in 2007.
On this point, Hilale recalled that the Moroccan initiative "enjoys broad and growing international support as the only solution for a definitive solution to this question", highlighting the recent "symbolic" support of France as a permanent member of the Security Council.
Hilale also recalled that Algeria, however, continues to deny the right to self-determination to the Kabyle people, "who have been living under occupation for centuries. "Let Algeria fully assume its logic of supporting the principle of self-determination in favour of all the peoples of the world and accept to grant it to the people of Kabylia," he added.
"Its population of more than 7 million lives in marginalisation and poverty. Its young people and women are persecuted and their rights of expression, assembly, association, free movement and preservation of their culture and identity are violated daily," the ambassador lamented, adding that "the courageous Kabyle people fully deserve that the United Nations take responsibility for guaranteeing their right to freely decide their future and to exercise their right to self-determination, as Algeria demands for other populations of the world.
Morocco invests in the development of the Sahara
Rejecting the false accusations of the Algerian delegate on the question of natural resources in Western Sahara, the ambassador clarified that no report of the Secretary General nor any Security Council resolution has given credibility to his assertions, stressing that, on the contrary, it was Morocco which injected 8 billion dollars for the development of its provinces, thus raising their socio-economic development to a level higher than that of several regions of Algeria.
"The numerous infrastructure projects in the Sahara, thanks to the New Development Model for the Southern Provinces, launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in 2015, have transformed the region," Hilale went on to point out, nuancing that the area has become an attractive destination for foreign investments, "which will allow it to register the highest development rates in the Kingdom and be a regional hub between the African continent and the rest of the world."
Hilale encouraged the Algerian official to read the numerous reports submitted to the Security Council that confirm Morocco's efforts to develop the southern provinces.
"This is not the case with Algeria, which, instead of spending billions of dollars of its oil and gas revenues to develop its own country, uses them to fund and arm the Polisario Front and other terrorist and separatist groups operating in its vicinity and dangerously destabilising neighbouring countries," he said.
In concluding his letter, Hilale indicated that the Kingdom of Morocco strongly expects Algeria to devote itself more to the interests of the African continent it represents instead of promoting its agenda against its neighbour, Morocco.