Denmark backs Morocco’s autonomy plan for Sahara

Denmark has joined a long list of influential countries to back Morocco’s autonomy plan as a final solution to the Sahara issue.
Denmark said the autonomy proposal submitted by Morocco in 2007 is a “serious and credible contribution to the ongoing UN efforts.”
This came in a joint statement following talks in New York between Moroccan and Danish foreign ministers, Nasser Bourita and Larse Lokke Rasmussen.

The autonomy plan is a “good basis for an agreed solution between the parties,” the Danish foreign minister said.
The two ministers backed UN envoy Steffan De Mistura and the UN process aiming to find a peaceful and mutually acceptable solution in line with Security Council resolutions.

Denmark is the second Nordic country to openly back the autonomy plan after a similar move this summer by Finland.
Support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and the autonomy plan is gaining traction following Paris support for Rabat’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory this summer.

The US has already expressed its full recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory together with Israel, Arab monarchies, and a growing group of African countries.

Influential countries in the EU like Spain and Germany support the autonomy plan as a mutually acceptable solution to a conflict that has long lasted.

In its address this week at the United Nations General Assembly convening in New York, Morocco has reiterated its firm attachment to a lasting political solution based exclusively on the autonomy plan, saying “no political process is possible outside the framework of the round tables defined by the UN, with the full participation of Algeria, nor any solution outside the framework of the Moroccan autonomy initiative, or any serious political process without the return of the armed militias to the ceasefire” as demanded by the Security Council.

Morocco’s statement comes amid a growing international support for its sovereignty over its Sahara and for its autonomy initiative put on the negotiating table, sending a clear message to the other parties to the conflict that time has come to move towards a political solution on this basis, through the round table process and in accordance with Security Council resolutions.