African Union PSC Meeting On Sahara, A ‘Non-event’ For Morocco: Nasser Bourita

Rabat, March 20 (TNA) Morocco feels neither concerned nor interested by the statement published following the meeting of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU), held on March 9, 2021, on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, said Friday in Rabat minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita.

This is a "non-event" for Morocco, which continues to work at the AU within the framework of the decision 693 of the Union, the minister pointed out at a press briefing at the end of talks with Guinean counterpart, Ibrahim Khalil Kaba.

"This statement is the result of maneuvers and irregularities which marred the adoption procedure", underlined Bourita, who recalled in this regard that the meeting of the PSC took place on March 9, while the document was released on March 19. “During all these 10 days, the majority of the Council had rejected in writing its conclusions. It may be that by force or by fait accompli, the text has been changed,” he said.

This meeting of the PSC has already been marred by several irregularities and raises many questions about its context, its objectives and its motives, he noted, stressing that the discussions showed that Africa has a clear position, which is to support the efforts of the United Nations to achieve a solution to the issue of the Moroccan Sahara. Bourita seized this opportunity to recall that the Moroccan Sahara issue is submitted to the United Nations, and that the Troika is the only one empowered to follow the issue of Sahara.

Bourita voiced Morocco's satisfaction with the fact that the majority of PSC member states, as well as the AU Commission, have remained faithful to legality and legitimacy, defending during the PSC Summit of March 9 the validity and relevance of the AU decision N° 693, as the only AU framework to follow the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.

The solution must reflect the national position of two-thirds of African countries which do not recognize the puppet entity self-proclaimed by the Polisario separatists, said the minister, recalling that most African countries support the Moroccanness of the Sahara. "So for us it is a non-event," Bourita stressed.

Decision N° 693 of the African Union Summit, held in July 2018 in Nouakchott, Mauritania, enshrines the exclusivity of the UN as a framework for the search for a solution to the regional conflict over the Moroccan Sahara, while establishing the Troika mechanism to support the efforts of the United Nations to settle this artificial dispute.