Sahara: MEDays Forum calls on Algiers to join roundtable process

The 14th edition of MEDays, an international forum organized by the Amadeus Institute in Tangier November 2 to 5, has called on Algeria to join the roundtables process as recommended by resolution 2654 of the UN Security Council with a view to ending the conflict over the Moroccan Sahara.

This urgent appeal to the Algerian regime to comply with the UN Security Council resolution was launched during the panel “Moroccan Sahara: search for a dynamic” in which many Moroccan and foreign politicians and experts took part.

After a two hour-debate, the participants came to the conclusion that dialogue and the autonomy plan for the Sahara, under the sovereignty of Morocco, proposed in 2007, are the one and only way to settle this half-century-old conflict.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gambia, Mamadou Tangarra; special adviser and chief economist to the Prime Minister of Senegal Moubarack Lô; international expert Amine Laghidi; and President of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe (IPSE) Emmanuel Dupuy were among the participants in the debate, along with president and founder of the Association of Israel-Morocco friendship Simon Haim Skira; and French MP of Moroccan origin, Rachida Kaaout who is also president of the High Commission for African Diasporas in France.

Gambia’s top diplomat pointed out that his country was the first to open a consulate general in Dakhla, in the Saharan provinces. “We have supported the territorial integrity of Morocco since the creation of The Gambia,” reiterated Mamadou Tangarra.

Expert Amine Laghidi focused his presentation on the tremendous economic and social development of the Sahara provinces, pointing out that thanks to these development efforts, Morocco has raised its Saharan provinces to the level of the most developed regions of Morocco and Africa.

An ambitious development plan (including the construction of roads, ports, industrial zones…) has been carried out thanks to investments estimated at eight billion dollars, underlined the political scientist. He also mentioned UN Security Council resolution 2654 which “recognizes the seriousness, credibility and pre-eminence of the autonomy plan”. “Algeria must respect this resolution by returning to the roundtables of dialogue,” insisted Amine Laghidi.

Moubarack Lô, special adviser to the Senegalese Prime Minister, on his part considered that the autonomy initiative is the best plan likely to settle the artificially maintained conflict. “This plan is in line with the principles of the UN. This initiative provides, under Moroccan sovereignty, the Southern Provinces with a local government, a Parliament and regional courts”, he recalled.

Simon Haïm Skira, president of the Israel-Morocco Friendship Association, expressed his organization’s commitment to plead for the Moroccanness of the Sahara everywhere in the world, including in Israel.