“It’s not a gift to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara; it’s a sign of justice to recognize that our country’s borders have been divided up to be shared” between France and Spain, Morocco’s ambassador to France Samira Sitail said during a conference organized jointly by Sciences Maroc and Sciences Po Alumni Maroc on Tuesday.
At the conference, entitled “Morocco: internal dynamics and international clout,” reported TelQuel in its weekly edition of April 19-25, Ambassador Sitail discussed the role that Algeria has played for 50 years, in attempting to pull off the “biggest theft and swindle” of a territory.
“Once again,” she said, “history is with us and it’s no gift to say that the Sahara is Moroccan.”
Sitail asserted that the “importance” of the relations between Morocco and France is “inescapable,” but that Morocco is free to cooperate and create ties with other new partners. “Our French partners are now perfectly aware of this,” she said.
Morocco and France are engaging in an open and frank dialogue to strengthen cooperation in all domains, she added.
“It’s not a question of a recovery,” said Morocco’s envoy to Paris, but of “putting the cursor” somewhere else, and going where the relations have never gone before.
More than 1.6 million Moroccans live in France, and Morocco welcomes tens of thousands of French nationals every year.
Sitail also assured that business communities say they have hardly felt the tensions between the two countries, knowing that Morocco is the leading African investor in France.
Sitail talked about Morocco’s diplomatic weight, starting her speech with “May I?,” and explaining that, for a long time, this was the position expected of developing countries on the international chessboard—that while waiting for “permission” to speak, they act, position themselves, and grow.
As examples, she laid out Abraham Serfaty’s return to Morocco in 1999, the September 08 earthquake, the May 16, 2003 attacks, the Green Morocco Plan, and Morocco’s return to the African Union in 2017.
Sitail was appointed Morocco’s ambassador to the Quai D’Orsay in October. An outspoken journalist, she has held high-level roles within the 2M Group for the past 32 years and has been instrumental in defining the editorial approach for the company’s television channel, radio station, and website.