Morocco’s permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale said that Morocco was neither informed nor consulted about the visit that UNSG Personal Envoy for Sahara Staffan De Mistura paid to South Africa, and explained that the Kingdom refuses any involvement of South Africa in the Sahara issue.
De Mistura had visited Pretoria at the invitation of the second cabinet of Ramaphosa and discussed the Sahara conflict with members of the African National Congress (ANC), a party known for its hostility towards Morocco.
Hilale was speaking to news agency MAP on Saturday when he pointed out that Morocco flatly refused this visit for logical and legitimate reasons, and made its position known to the UN Secretariat General and to De Mistura. “We refused any kind of interaction of South Africa with the Sahara issue. Hopefully this was just De Mistura’s misevaluation of South Africa’s true position.”
The Moroccan diplomat said that Morocco warned against the repercussions of such visit on the political process, and reminded the UN official of the parameters governing his mandate, including his mission to engage with the four parties to the conflict (Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and the polisario). He added that the parties concerned were repeatedly mentioned in UNSC resolutions since 2007, including resolution 2703 dated Oct. 30, 2023.
Hilale explained that not once did the said resolutions include South Africa as a party contributing to the political process, especially since the country recognizes and supports the polisario politically, diplomatically, militarily and through its media. It is specifically for this reason that Morocco will never accept any “toxic role” by South Africa in the Sahara conflict, he said.
Hilale expressed his astonishment that attempts to approach the Sahara conflict are discussed with South Africa and not Morocco and other involved parties. “Morocco believes only in the round-table meetings, with the exclusive participation of Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and the polisario. We hope that De Mistura convinces Algeria to go back to the roundtables and resume negotiations as it did in 2018 and 2019.”
Hilale noted that the Security Council entrusted De Mistura with a clear mandate to facilitate a political, realistic, practical and durable solution to the artificial regional dispute.
He concluded by saying that King Mohammed VI laid down the roadmap for settling the conflict through the autonomy plan, under Morocco’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.