Washington – US congressman Steve Cohen highlighted, on Monday, the overwhelming bipartisan support for Morocco’s autonomy plan in the Sahara, under the Moroccan sovereignty, within the two chambers of the US congress, recalling that a majority of congress has signaled its support for the plan on more than one occasion.
“The autonomy initiative has gained the endorsement of the past three U.S. administrations Clinton, Bush and Obama,” Cohen said in an article of opinion on the Roll Call website, noting that the previous U.N. special envoy for the Sahara Peter Van Walsum also called for negotiations to be conducted solely on autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
He underlined that the current set of informal talks, which kicked off Sunday in Manhasset, the suburbs of New York, is taking place with an entirely new political and social backdrop in North Africa.
This new paradigm makes the settlement of the Sahara dispute such an urgent and achievable priority, he went on, saying that the main advocates for the Polisario are either gone or are severely weakened. He gave the example of the downfall of Moammar Gadhafi who recruited Polisario mercenaries to keep him in power.
Steve Cohen noted also the mounting protest from within the camps of Tindouf, “particularly from its youth groups and their frustration over the Sahara stalemate,” underlining the despotic rule of the Polisario’s leader, Mohamed Abdelaziz.
Cohen pointed out that the many crises spawned or exacerbated by the unresolved Sahara issue human trafficking, drug trafficking, al-Qaida recruitment have now reached a level where the governments in the region realize they must be confronted.
He hoped that the parties now sitting together in Manhasset engage with good faith in the ninth set of talks, underlining that only Morocco, thus far, has brought forward a serious proposal aimed at a resolution.”
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