Rabat Tough Words for Pretoria’s Provocative Meddling

Morocco has sent a strong rebuking message to South Africa for its malicious and disruptive meddling in the Sahara issue and the UN-led political process.

“South Africa was and will remain a marginal actor in the Moroccan Sahara issue and a dissonant voice, without any influence or weight,” said Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita at a press conference held Tuesday in Rabat.

Bourita’s comments show Morocco’s firm standing regarding its territorial integrity and its reprobation of the talks held last week in Pretoria by UN Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura.

In this regard, the minister cited Morocco’s steadfast position, saying that there are three non-negotiable elements: the identification of the parties to the Sahara regional conflict, the roundtable format as the only framework of the UN process, and Morocco’s autonomy plan under its sovereignty as the only solution to the Sahara issue.

These three elements are not negotiable and constitute the basis of Morocco’s action and its interaction with international parties and the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General, underlined the minister.

When these elements are not respected, Morocco takes appropriate measures, warned Mr. Bourita, noting that Rabat deals with UN envoys in accordance with the principles of transparency, consultation and coordination for the success of this process.

According to some experts, Rabat can withdraw confidence from De Mistura for violating his mandate and the UN Security Council resolutions, calling on him to re-launch the UN political process and the round-table talks with the participation of Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Polisario. But the Algerian regime, which funds, arms and shelters the Polisario armed militias, continues to refuse to take part in a new round of round-table talks with impunity.

South Africa, which has adopted a negative position on the Sahara issue for twenty years, has shown its incapacity to influence the course of this issue, said the minister, affirming that 27 countries of its geographical environment have withdrawn their recognition of the puppet entity. Half of the Southern African Development Community members have pulled out their recognition to the self-proclaimed SADR, while a third of them opened consulates in Dakhla and Laayoune.

“Although South Africa was a member of the Security Council three times since its recognition of the puppet entity, it was unable to prevent the adoption of any of the Security Council resolutions that support the autonomy initiative, identify the parties to the conflict and promote the roundtable process,” underlined the Moroccan official.