25 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The US Undersecretary of State for International Organization Affairs, Michele Sison, has reiterated from Rabat that the autonomy plan presented by Morocco is a “serious, credible and realistic” solution to resolve the dispute over Western Sahara.
“The United States continues to consider the autonomy plan presented by Morocco as serious, credible and realistic,” he said at a press conference after a meeting with the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Naser Burita, as reported by the newspaper ‘Le Matin’.
In this sense, he has affirmed that Washington supports the work of the UN envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, along with the peacekeeping efforts of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). .
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite resistance from the Polisario Front, with whom it remained at war until 1991, when both parties signed a ceasefire with a view to holding a self-determination referendum, but the differences on the elaboration of the census and the inclusion or not of the Moroccan settlers have prevented its call up to now.
On November 14, 2020, the Polisario Front declared the ceasefire with Morocco broken in response to a Moroccan military action against Saharawi activists in Guerguerat, in the agreed demilitarized zone, which meant for the Saharawis a violation of the conditions of the Stop the fire.
The latest setback for the Sahrawi independentistas has been the support of the Spanish government for the Moroccan autonomy plan made public on March 18 in a letter addressed to the Alaouite king, Mohamed VI, a change of position described as treason by the Polisario Front, which remember that Spain is still ‘de jure’ the administering power of Western Sahara.
