US recognition of Moroccanness of Sahara important for a lasting solution, Former Brazilian President says

Former Brazilian President Fernando Collor De Mello stressed, in a recent letter to US President Joe Biden, the importance of the US decision to recognize Morocco’s full sovereignty over its Sahara as a new dynamic towards a lasting solution to this artificial conflict.

“I would like to express to Your Excellency my satisfaction after the recent decision of the United States to recognize the full sovereignty of Morocco over the Sahara,” Fernando Collor De Mello, who is currently member of the Senate said.

The decision was taken at a moment of great importance because “the political process aimed at resolving this regional dispute requires a new dynamic capable of avoiding the persistence of deadlocks and acts of destabilization frequently committed by the armed militias,” the member of the Republican Party of the Social Order stated in his letter.

“I also welcome the decision to recognize the autonomy initiative as the sole basis for settling the regional dispute over the Sahara and to open a consulate in the city of Dakhla, which represents an act of recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty and the potential of the region as an economic hub,” stressed the Senator of the State of Alagoas.

Collor expressed confidence that the United States, under Joe Biden’s presidency, will help the Sahara issue make headway towards a just and lasting solution through its continued support for the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative.

The Senator also welcomed the Morocco-Israel-United States trilateral agreement, saying it will strengthen prospects for peace in the Middle East, in line with the role Morocco has historically played in promoting peace in the region.

The former Brazilian President, on the other hand, hailed the new economic model of the Sahara region, launched by King Mohammed VI in 2015, stressing that the benefits of the $8 billion investment plan are already visible in terms of infrastructure, urban planning, health services and educational institutions as well as at the economic, agricultural, industrial, and tourism levels.

Collor underlined further that the implementation of the Sahara development model is based on democratic local governance as the Sahrawis, including former members of the polisario separatist group, manage the regional councils following free and transparent elections.

“This democratic management is the beginning of what the status of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty would offer, with the creation of regional legislative, executive and judicial bodies,” he said in his letter to the US president.

“It is no coincidence that a growing number of countries support the autonomy initiative as a realistic, viable and pragmatic political solution, and that the last 27 resolutions by the UN Security Council have affirmed what several UN envoys have said: the independence of the Sahara is not a realistic option,” he stressed.

The former Brazilian president noted in his letter that the Security Council considers Morocco’s efforts and the Sahara autonomy initiative as a serious and credible basis for a political solution, noting that the council’s resolutions are a direct reflection of the realities in the field and the relevance of the autonomy plan, “which is the only means to put an end to the suffering of the people living in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, to ensure reconciliation between the populations and to achieve peace in this region.”

Fernando Collor de Mello was Mayor of the city of Maceio (East) from 1979 to 1982, Federal Deputy from 1982 to 1986 and Governor of the State of Alagoas (East) from 1987 to 1989. He was the youngest president in Brazil’s history, elected at the age of 40 by the National Reconstruction Party (PRN).