French support for Morocco’s sovereignty over Sahara, “significant development”- Royal Office says
Morocco’s Royal Office said French support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and the autonomy plan “as the only basis” for a solution to the Sahara conflict under the Kingdom’s sovereignty was a “significant development.”
This came in a statement by the Royal Office following a letter from President Emmanuel Macron to King Mohammed VI, announcing Paris new clear-cut support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory.
“This announcement by the French Republic, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is an important and significant development in support of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara. It is part of the momentum launched by HM King Mohammed VI – may God preserve Him – and carried by many countries in different regions of the world, in favor of the territorial integrity of Morocco and the autonomy plan as the exclusive framework for the resolution of this regional dispute,” reads the Royal Office statement.
In the letter to the King, President Emmanuel Macron said he considers “that the present and future of Western Sahara are within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.”
He affirmed that the French position remains “steady” and that the Sahara was an issue of “national security for the Kingdom,” adding that France would act accordingly to this position “at the domestic and international levels.”
“For France, autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework within which this issue shall be resolved. Our support for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 is clear and unwavering,” the French Head of State said, adding that this plan “constitutes now the only basis to achieve a just, lasting, and negotiated political solution, in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
“Today, an increasingly broad international consensus is emerging,” said the French President regarding the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty.
On the development projects launched in the Sahara, Macron said “”France will support Morocco in this process for the benefit of the local populations.”
