Middle East Monitor
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry has slammed as “provocative” the Polisario Front’s 45th anniversary celebrations. “The Kingdom of Morocco strongly condemns the recent provocative practices carried out by the Polisario in the town of Tifariti,” said the ministry in a statement published by the official Moroccan news agency. “This is a flagrant violation of the ceasefire and a clear challenge to the UN Security Council authority.”
Morocco, it revealed, has contacted the UN Security Council, the UN Secretary-General and MINURSO and asked them to take the necessary measures to address these “unacceptable” developments. MINURSO is the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, the territory for which the Polisario Front has been fighting for independence.
The ministry accused neighbouring Algeria of supporting the Polisario’s recent “escalations” and pointed out that it has violated the Arab Maghreb Union charter on two occasions. The first was by closing the border and the second was when it welcomed the armed movement on its territory, a movement which threatens the territorial integrity of another Union member state.
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“Morocco is asking the concerned UN bodies to expedite the opening of an international investigation into the situation in the Tindouf refugee camps run by the Polisario on Algerian soil,” added the Foreign Ministry, “where our Moroccan citizens and brothers are being held in inhuman and degrading conditions.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Morocco and the Polisario to “exercise utmost restraint and to take no action that might constitute a change to the status quo” in the Sahara region.
