The organization says “suspend contacts” in response to the Executive’s support for the “illegal proposal of the Moroccan occupier”
Pedro Sánchez’s decision to give a radical turn to the traditional policy in Western Sahara by expressly supporting the Moroccan plan on the former Spanish colony and the meeting of the Spanish president with King Mohamed VI have finished blowing up the bridges between the Socialist Executive and the Polisario Front.
The Saharawi organization announced this morning that it has decided to “suspend contacts” with the “current Spanish Government.” Or what is the same, to finish officially breaking off relations that, despite the attempts of United We Can, were in practice non-existent since on March 18 the Moroccan press made public the letter that Sánchez had addressed to the Alaouite monarch and in the one in which the Spanish president made his diplomatic swerve official.
In a statement from the Polisario Front delegation for Spain dated in Bir Lehlu (Western Sahara), this organization, which Spain has traditionally recognized as the sole legitimate representative of the population of the former colony, justifies its break with the Sánchez Government for its “support » to the «plan of the Moroccan occupier aimed at legislating the annexation of the territories of Western Sahara by force». According to the General Secretariat of the Polisario, which is the one who signs the letter, Spain, with its support for the Rabat proposal of a Sahara with a statute of autonomy but under Moroccan sovereignty, would be blessing “the suppression of the inalienable rights of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence.
The Polisario recalls in its harsh statement that “the Spanish State has responsibilities towards the Saharawi people and before the United Nations at the same time that it is the Administrative Power of the region, and that its responsibilities do not prescribe”.
“miserable deals”
The organization, which criticizes the “current government” for “using the Saharawi question in the framework of its miserable dealings with the occupying force”, warns that it will not resume its relations with the Executive until it “adheres to the resolutions of the international legitimacy that recognize the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people, and to respect the borders of their country as they are internationally recognized.
The General Secretariat, despite criticism of the Executive, does thank the Congress of Deputies and the “broad and transversal movement of solidarity” with its cause, for “so strongly” urging the Spanish Government to “return to the path of international law”.
repositioning
The rupture of relations announced this Sunday by the Polisario is the latest move on a board that Sánchez surprisingly removed last month and that has caused the hasty repositioning of the actors in the area. The ‘facto’ Spanish recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the former colony for the first time in 45 years caused Rabat to forget the ‘insult’ for having brought the Polisario leader, Brahim Gali, to Spain to be treated by covid and immediately return to Madrid the ambassador, Karima Benyaich, who had been withdrawn from the country in mid-May 2021.
Rabat and Madrid, in addition to ending this crisis, staged their rebuilt relationship this week with Sánchez’s visit to meet Mohamed VI.
However, the agreement with Rabat on account of the new position of the Sahara provoked an immediate reaction from Algeria, a traditional enemy of Morocco and an ally and protector of the Saharawi Front. The Government of Algiers, which until last month was an ally of Spain, only hours after learning of Sánchez’s letter to the Moroccan king, announced on March 19 that it was calling its ambassador, Said Moussi, for consultation, which in practice amounted to the withdrawal of the diplomatic representative.
Moussi’s return to Algiers was followed in early April by the announcement by the president of the Algerian public group Sonatrach, Touffik Hakkar, that the Maghreb country was contemplating a price increase for the gas it sells to Spain, while committing to maintain the price to the rest of its European buyers.
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