“The Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco considers its international environment,” declared the sovereign in a radio-television speech.
King Mohammed VI on Saturday evening urged Morocco’s partner countries to “clarify“their position on the question of the disputed territory of Western Sahara and to support it”unequivocally“. “I would like to send a clear message to everyone: the Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco considers its international environment“, declared the king in a radio-television speech on the occasion of the so-called feast of “the revolution of the king and the people», celebrating a historic episode of the anti-colonial struggle and which symbolizes the link between the monarch and his subjects.
“It is also clearly and simply the yardstick that measures the sincerity of the friendships and the effectiveness of the partnerships that he establishes.“, he underlined. “With regard to certain countries that are among our partners, traditional or new, whose positions on the Sahara issue are ambiguous, we expect them to clarify and review the substance of their position, in a way that does not lead to any equivocal“warned the Cherifian sovereign. The latter did not specify which countries his message was particularly aimed at.
Support from USA, Spain and Germany
But he praised the position “unavoidableof the United States – which recognized the “Moroccannessof Western Sahara under the presidency of Donald Trump, an initiative assumed by his successor Joe Biden. Mohammed VI also welcomed the reversal of Spain, and to a lesser extent of Germany, which rallied to “autonomy initiativeunder Moroccan sovereignty advocated by Rabat to settle the Western Sahara conflict.
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This former Spanish colony, which Morocco and the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front have been fighting over for decades, is considered a “non-self-governing territoryby the UN. Morocco controls 80% and advocates autonomy under its exclusive sovereignty, while the Polisario, supported by Algeria, calls for a referendum on self-determination.
In his speech, also devoted at length to the Moroccan diaspora, Mohammed VI called for institutionally strengthening the links between “Moroccans around the worldand their homeland,including with the hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews” abroad.
Morocco and Israel resumed diplomatic relations in December 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, a process between the Jewish state and several Arab countries, supported by Washington. In return, the Trump administration recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. The approximately 700,000 Israelis of Moroccan descent have often maintained very strong ties with their country of origin.