The Diplomat
The Polisario Front has given a twist to the concept of “territorial integrity” used by the Spanish government to defend the Saharawi autonomy plan and has asked the head of the Executive, Pedro Sánchez, to “clarify” whether this is intended to include the territory of Western Sahara “as an integral part of Morocco”.
In the letter sent last March by Pedro Sánchez to King Mohamed VI, to announce “a new relationship” with Morocco and to defend “the Moroccan proposal for autonomy presented in 2007 as the most serious, credible and realistic basis for the resolution of this dispute”, alluded to the need to “guarantee the stability and territorial integrity of our two countries”. The allusion to “territorial integrity” has so far been linked to the possibility of Morocco relinquishing sovereignty over Ceuta and Melilla. However, in the joint declaration agreed last April 7 during the official visit of the President of the Government to Rabat, there was not a single mention of “territorial integrity” or the future of the two autonomous cities.
In this regard, the delegate of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulah Arabi, yesterday demanded the Spanish Government to “clarify what is meant by territorial integrity of Morocco and why it considers that the option raised unilaterally by Morocco outside international law is a serious, viable and credible solution”. “We need to know what the President of the Government means by that concept, whether it is the internationally recognized borders of Morocco or whether he is considering the territory of Western Sahara as an integral part of Morocco”, he explained during a press conference in Madrid.
In that case, he warned, such a position would be “very serious” because “that is no longer opting for autonomy, but recognizing a supposed sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara” and, therefore, would go against international law, which establishes that Morocco and the Sahara are “two distinct territories”. Apart, he continued, Spain’s position would go “beyond” that of the United States or Germany, which consider “the option of autonomy as a good option” but “also maintaining the option of independence under international law”. “Spain has opted for the Moroccan option as the most serious and the most credible and almost says the only one. Therein lies the difference,” he lamented.
On the other hand, the Saharawi delegate assured that the Polisario understands that it is “necessary” that “relations of understanding and good neighborliness be established between Morocco and Spain”. “We are not opposed and we have nothing against it”, but this cannot be “to the detriment of the legitimate aspirations of the Saharawi people”, he warned. “We will never accept it”, he added.
The Polisario Front announced last Sunday its decision to suspend “its contacts with the present Spanish government” because of its support for the “illegal proposal of the Moroccan occupier which aims to legitimize the annexation of the territories of Western Sahara by force and ignoring the inalienable rights of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently assured that “it will always keep open all channels of dialogue with the Polisario Front” and the Secretary of Institutional Action of Podemos (minority partner of the Government, María Teresa Pérez, yesterday asked Pedro Sánchez to reflect after the recent majority pronouncement of the Congress in favor of self-determination and after the suspension of relations by the Polisario Front, and to return to the traditional consensus of Spain in favor of the UN resolutions and, therefore, of the referendum for Western Sahara.
