The USA on Tuesday reiterated its help for a Moroccan plan for autonomy within the Western Sahara to settle the dominion’s decades-old battle with the Polisario independence motion.
“We proceed to view Morocco’s autonomy plan as severe, credible and sensible,” US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman mentioned throughout a go to to the US ally.
Her regional tour will even embody Morocco’s arch-rival Algeria.
Sherman voiced help for Staffan de Mistura, the UN’s Western Sahara envoy, who’s working to revive a peace course of that has been stalled since 2019.
“We accomplish that with an open thoughts to discover a decision that can result in a permanent and dignified final result for all events,” Sherman informed journalists after assembly with Morocco’s prime diplomat Nasser Bourita.
Bourita famous Washington’s “clear and fixed place” on Western Sahara and the autonomy plan.
Rabat sees the huge stretch of desert, a former Spanish colony with wealthy phosphate sources and entry to profitable Atlantic fishing waters, as an integral a part of its territory.
Polisario Entrance separatists took up arms within the Nineteen Seventies and have continued to demand an independence referendum on the premise of a 1991 deal that included a ceasefire.
In late 2020, the Trump administration recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as a quid professional quo for the dominion mending ties with Israel.
The Biden administration has not reversed Trump’s resolution.
The deal sparked renewed tensions with neighbouring Algeria, which has lengthy supported the Polisario.
The motion has declared the 1991 ceasefire null and void.
Sherman mentioned she and Bourita additionally mentioned Russia’s “premeditated, unjustified, and unprovoked conflict on Ukraine”.
Rabat, one among Washington’s oldest allies below a treaty relationship again to 1787, didn’t participate in final week’s UN Common Meeting vote on a decision calling for Russia to withdraw instantly from Ukraine.
Analysts say its neutrality stems from a need to keep away from alienating Russia, a Safety Council member with a say in resolutions over the Western Sahara.
