United Nations — Before the members of the 4th Committee of the United Nations General Assembly, ambassador Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the UN, deconstructed the myths and lies that Algeria, sponsor and supporter of the armed separatist group “polisario”, conveys about the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
Riposting to his Algerian counterpart who was speaking with apparent nervousness, Hilale noted that the tone and terms of the speech of the Algerian ambassador blatantly betray the bilateral nature of this regional dispute, stressing that the issue of the Moroccan Sahara is a “matter of geopolitics and regional hegemonic aim of his country and not of self-determination”.
Noting that the return of the Sahara to the mother country, Morocco, has definitively settled this issue within the framework of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom, and this in accordance with the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions and international law, the Moroccan ambassador said that the speeches and actions of Algeria enshrine the bilaterality of the Sahara issue.
Hilale considered “surprising” that Algeria “makes the capture of a principle of the UN and its instrumentalization for the sole dispute of the Moroccan Sahara.”
“Didn’t the Algerian ambassador write in a letter to the Security Council on July 13 that +all the peoples of the world+ have the right to decide on their future,” wondered Hilale, noting that Algeria does nothing to ensure that “all the peoples of the world”, without exception, can enjoy it one day.
“If the obsessive plea of Algeria is innocent, its monomaniacal defense of the principle of self-determination should not focus exclusively on the sole issue of the Moroccan Sahara, but be interested in all cases in the world,” he said before the 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly.
The Moroccan diplomat noted that the Algerian position raises several legitimate questions: “where is Algeria and where is its obsessive attachment to the principle of self-determination when it comes to other issues under consideration by the Fourth Committee?”.
“What interests Algeria, of course, is Morocco and Morocco only. Its sole and ultimate agenda is none other than the Moroccan Sahara,” he said, wondering if Algeria has the courage to make the same requests for other issues discussed in this Committee?.
“Of course not, Algeria has never been able to pronounce a single word in their favor,” he said, still wondering if “the defense of the UN Charter authorizes a country, Algeria in this case, to proclaim itself as the executor of this principle, including by resorting to an armed separatist group? Of course not”.
“Does the so-called selective promotion of a UN principle give a mandate to a country, in this case Algeria, to create a separatist armed group, to shelter it, to entrust it with part of its territory to plan and carry out its armed attacks against Morocco? Obviously, the answer is still no,” added Hilale.
The ambassador permanent representative of Morocco to the UN also noted that Algeria’s actions contradict its claim to observer status in this regional dispute, noting that Algeria “devotes its diplomacy, exclusively, to the promotion and defense of an armed group whose links with terrorism are proven, conducts campaigns with a huge budget against Morocco with the sole objective of giving credibility to the illusion of a self-proclaimed puppet state in the Tindouf desert and obstructs the UN political process for the settlement of this dispute”.
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