Sahara: Morocco sends letter to UN Security Council denouncing Algeria’s provocative statement
Morocco’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Omar Hilale, sent a response letter to the President and members of the Security Council following the provocative and misleading statement of the Secretary General of the ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue during a meeting of the Council, stressing that the Algerian delegate, as usual, gave free rein to his country’s Moroccan-phobia and its unhealthy obsession with the Moroccan Sahara.
In this letter, Mr. Hilale noted that during the Security Council debate held Monday under the chairmanship of Mr. Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, and dedicated to the theme “Maintaining international peace and security: remedying historical injustice and strengthening the effective representation of Africa at the Security Council”, the Secretary General of the Algerian ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lounes Magramane, mentioned in his statement an issue that was not on the agenda of this meeting.
Given that only the members of the Committee of ten Heads of State and Government of the African Union on the reform of the Security Council (C10) and representatives of interest groups in the intergovernmental negotiations and regional groups were invited to speak during the said debate, the ambassador pointed out that Morocco would like to provide the following elements of response to the statement of the Algerian delegate, both in terms of its form and substance.
A statement completely out of context
Mr. Hilale stressed that instead of proposing concrete measures and formulating effective strategies to repair the injustice of Africa’s non-representation at the Security Council, the Algerian representative chose the path of misleading theses, erroneous assertions and fallacious statements.
“Clearly, his country is rather obsessed with its Moroccan-phobia and its unhealthy obsession with the Moroccan Sahara,” the ambassador underlined.
He noted that Algeria, whose candidacy for the Security Council was endorsed by the Summit of African Heads of State to defend the legitimate interests of the continent, with first and foremost African representation at the Security Council, has, as usual, favored its anti-Moroccan national agenda, to the detriment of the cause of Africa.
“The Secretary General of the Algerian ministry has outrageously disrespected His Excellency the President of Sierra Leone, who sought, in his capacity as President of the C10 of the African Union, to make the cause of Africa’s representativeness the flagship event of his country’s presidency of the Council,” said Mr. Hilale, adding, “regrettably, this was without taking into account the slip-up of the Algerian representative, who distinguished himself by being the only one to address the issue of the Moroccan Sahara during this session.”
The Sahara has been Moroccan since the dawn of time and will remain so until the end of time
Referring to the so-called issue of decolonization as put forward by the Algerian delegate during the debate, the ambassador said that the issue of the Moroccan Sahara is a question of territorial integrity and national unity of the Kingdom of Morocco, and in no way a so-called issue of decolonization, noting that 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 so-called “colonized territory”.
The diplomat also recalled that the decolonization of the Moroccan Sahara was definitively settled thanks to the glorious Green March, whose fiftieth anniversary will be celebrated by the Kingdom next year, adding that its reintegration into the motherland is also sealed by the UN, in accordance with its resolution 3458B of December 10, 1975, which took note of the Madrid Agreement, signed on November 14, 1975.
This agreement has been filed with the UN Secretary-General since November 18, 1975, he added.
“The Moroccan Sahara is the subject of a political process aimed at reaching 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 relating to the peaceful settlement of disputes,” Mr. Hilale pointed out.
Algeria’s blatant double talk on self-determination
Reacting to the issue of self-determination raised by Algeria for the case of the Moroccan Sahara “with the sole aim of thwarting its recovery by Morocco,” the ambassador stressed that Algeria is resorting to an insidious and selective interpretation of this principle, in a vain attempt to mislead the international community.
“The Algerian delegate knowingly failed to mention that Resolution 1514 clearly establishes that the right to self-determination must in no case undermine the territorial integrity of member states, nor apply to a part of a sovereign state member of the UN,” the Moroccan diplomat said in his response letter.
He 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. Subsequently, the General Assembly adopted its resolution 2625 of 1970, which added the option of + any other political status freely determined +”.
The ambassador further explained that the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative is a modern, concrete and democratic form of exercising the right to self-determination, noting that this is why the Security Council has reaffirmed, in its 20 successive resolutions since its presentation in 2007, its preeminence, seriousness and credibility.
“Moreover, this initiative enjoys broad and growing international support as the one and only solution for the definitive settlement of this issue, including the recent and symbolic support of France as a permanent member of the Security Council”, said Mr. Hilale, adding that the Secretary General of the Algerian ministry of Foreign Affairs arrogates to himself the right to demand, out of context, the right to self-determination for the populations of the Saharan provinces of the Kingdom of Morocco.
The ambassador noted in this regard that the Algerian official “denies this right to the Kabyle people, who have been living under occupation for centuries. May Algeria fully assume its logic of supporting the principle of self-determination in favor of all the peoples of the world, and agree to grant it to the people of Kabylia”.
“The Kabyle region is neglected. Its population of more than 7 million lives in marginalization and poverty; its youth and women are persecuted and their rights of expression, assembly, association, free movement, preservation of their Kabyle culture and identity are violated on a daily basis,” the diplomat deplored, adding that “the valiant Kabyle people fully deserve that the United Nations take charge of ensuring their right to freely decide their future and exercise their right to self-determination, as Algeria is demanding for other populations in the world.”
Moroccan Sahara, a genuine model of regional development
Rejecting the fallacious allegations of the Algerian delegate on the issue of natural resources in the Moroccan Sahara, the ambassador said that no report of the Secretary-General nor any resolution of the Security Council have given credibility to his assertions, stressing that on the contrary, it is Morocco that has injected 8 billion dollars for the development of its provinces, thus raising their socio-economic development to a level higher than that of several wilayats in Algeria.
“Indeed, the several large-scale projects and major infrastructure projects initiated 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, which has become an attractive destination for foreign investment, allowing it to record the highest development indices in the Kingdom, and to be a regional hub between the African continent and the rest of the world,” the ambassador said in his letter to the Security Council.
He urged the Algerian official to read the several reports to the Security Council since 2016, including those of 2021, 2022 and 2023 from the UN Secretary-General, which confirm Morocco’s efforts in terms of huge investments and structuring development projects in its Saharan provinces.
These reports thus show that the significant growth experienced by the Moroccan Sahara, on all levels, is in no way compromised by Algeria’s hostility for half a century, nor held hostage by the expectation of the political settlement of this regional dispute, he said.
“This is not the case in Algeria, which, instead of devoting billions of dollars of revenues from its oil and gas to the development of its own country, uses them to finance and arm its proxy, the +polisario+, as well as other terrorist and separatist groups, which are active in its immediate vicinity and dangerously destabilizing neighboring countries,” Mr. Hilale underlined.
Implementation of Security Council resolutions
Referring to Algeria’s “manifestly contradictory” position on the UN Security Council resolutions regarding the Moroccan Sahara, the ambassador noted that on the one hand, this country officially rejects them, and on the other hand, it insistently calls for their implementation.
“The Algerian delegate pretends to forget that the current blockage of the political process is entirely attributable to his country, which persists in refusing to return to the round tables, despite repeated calls from the Security Council, which considers Algeria as a main party in this regional dispute,” Mr. Hilale said, noting that Algeria, by refusing to resume its place at the round tables, seriously undermines the political process initiated by the Security Council, of which it is currently a member, and opposes international legality, embodied by the resolutions of the same Council, whose implementation his delegate ardently called for.
In conclusion of his response letter, Mr. Hilale underlined that the Kingdom of Morocco strongly hopes that Algeria will devote itself more, for the remaining period of its mandate on the Security Council, to the interests of the African continent, which it represents, rather than to the frantic promotion of its national agenda against its neighbor, Morocco.
The letter sent by Ambassador Hilale to the President and members of the UN Security Council will be published as an official document of the UN body.
