Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita said Morocco’s goal with respect to the criminal attacks that targeted the southern city of Es-Smara killing one person and injuring three, is not to escalate the situation, but to act prudently, reported several local media outlets.
Bourita’s statement came in answer to a question that arose during a debate in the Lower House over the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s supplementary budget.
The minister affirmed that Morocco will determine when and how to respond to this attack, stating that Morocco has conveyed its strong condemnation of this act to the United Nations and its Secretary-General through diplomatic channels.
He said also that the Moroccan people have expressed their strong condemnation through spontaneous marches in various cities of the southern regions of Morocco.
Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Omar Hilale, said previously that the silence of the Polisario separatists regarding the explosions in Es-Smara city indicates their involvement, and Morocco has the right under international law to respond to any terrorist attack.
Speaking at a press conference following the Security Council vote extending the mandate of the MINURSO on October 30, Hilale said that the explosions had targeted civilians and industrial areas, given that no military presence is known in the area.
Moroccan organizations condemned these attacks in a statement signed by 250 individuals from various sectors of Moroccan society, calling on the UN to fulfill its mandates to maintain peace and security in the region.
The public prosecutor’s office at Laayoune Appeal Court had announced that a police probe was launched into the attacks and that technical and ballistic forensics will be conducted to determine what happened.