Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), Omar Hilale, refuted, on July 6 in Baku, before the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), the Algerian Foreign Minister’s contradictions, stressing that Algeria is using the Movement’s principles to promote them in international forums while it has persistently violated these principles for decades.
Responding to the speech of Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf at the Ministerial Meeting of the Coordinating Bureau of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Baku, Azerbaijan, in which he asserted his country’s attachment to the principles of the United Nations (UN) and the Movement, and drew the usual parallel between the Palestinian cause and the Moroccan Sahara issue, Hilale emphasized that, contrary to the Algerian minister’s claims, “his country uses these principles to harp on them and promote them in international forums, while it has been unfortunately persisting in systematically violating them for decades.”
“Yesterday, my country’s delegation heard a speech by a member of our Movement, in which he called for the importance of respecting the principles of the United Nations (UN) and adhering to the founding principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM),” stated the Moroccan diplomat, underlining that Morocco has always defended these principles, particularly those relating to respect for the territorial integrity of States, the peaceful settlement of disputes, good neighborliness, and the non-interference in the internal affairs of States.
Hilale also strongly denounced the confusion between the just Palestinian cause and the artificial regional conflict over the Moroccan Sahara, to legitimize a national agenda through, according to numerous international reports, an armed separatist group linked to terrorist networks and international organized crime.
In a similar context, the Moroccan diplomat reminded the Algerian official, whose country persistently compares the Palestinian cause to that of the Moroccan Sahara, that “he has committed a crime against the cause of the Arab and Islamic Ummahs, by explicitly ignoring the demand of the honorable head of Palestinian diplomacy in 2015, concerning Palestine’s categorical rejection of all erroneous and suspect comparisons between the Sahara conflict and the Palestinian cause.”
“Anyone claiming to defend the Palestinian cause should at least respect Palestine’s sovereign decision, instead of rehashing obsolete, fraudulent, and outdated untruths,” stressed Hilale.
The Moroccan ambassador also called on brotherly Algeria to comply with Security Council (SC) resolutions and stop dodging its responsibility as the main party in the political process to put an end to the artificial dispute in North Africa, adding that Algeria’s “position must be first consistent with its declaration of intent and act on its appeal to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), and not an empty slogan of a broken record!”
The Moroccan ambassador also reaffirmed “the Kingdom’s firm commitment to reaching a definitive political solution to the conflict over the Moroccan Sahara, based on the Moroccan Autonomy Plan, as the only solution within the framework of the Kingdom’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty, which were finalized with the return of the Sahara to Morocco in 1975 and until the end of time.”
Hilale also affirmed that Morocco, as emphasized in the Royal Speech on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the Green March, reiterates its full support for the efforts of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy to relaunch the roundtable process with the same participants and format, to reach a realistic, lasting, and compromising political solution, per the relevant United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) resolutions, particularly resolution 2654.
Morocco participated in the ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Baku (July 5-6), with a delegation led by Hilale, including Morocco’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Adil Embarch, and the Director of the United Nations (UN) and International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates, Redouane Houssaini.
