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The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, July 31, 2024, p. 27
Rabat. France has recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara, a shift from decades-long policy that adds to a growing list of countries supporting Rabat as the United Nations-brokered peace process remains stalled.
In a letter to King Mohammed VI, French President Emmanuel Macron said that the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 was the only base to resolve the conflict, dealing a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi indigenous population since the end of Spanish colonization.
The change in France’s historic position is a major victory for Morocco and follows similar statements from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African countries with which Morocco wants to strengthen trade ties.
Both the Polisario Front and Algeria, a regional rival of Morocco, rejected the decision in advance before the letter was published.
Mohamed Sidati of the Polisario Front accused France of acting against international law and supporting Moroccan expansionism in the face of a decline in its influence in Africa.
No matter what hardships Morocco wants to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to defend their rights until they obtain the definitive exit from the territory of the Moroccan aggressor and the general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence.declared Sidati, foreign minister of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
Algeria recalls its ambassador from Paris
Algeria, meanwhile, said that the European country had informed it of its change of position days before and described Morocco and France as Colonial powers, new and oldand announced the withdrawal with immediate effect from his ambassador in Paris.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara – a former Spanish colony – in 1975, triggering a conflict with the pro-independence Polisario Front, which the United Nations recognises as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
The UN brokered a peace deal in 1991 and set up a mission to help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future, which never materialised.
