Joy in the Polisario front and concern in Morocco. Manifestations of Joseph BorrellThe High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, with which he emphasized the “consultation” with the Saharawis, had a big impact.
“The position that the Spanish government has was and is that of the European Union. That is, defending the holding of a consultation, so that it is the Saharawi people who decide how they want their future to be. The Spanish government has not moved from this position,” Borrell assured this Tuesday in an interview with TVE.
The Polisario Front received this declaration as a “very positive and important” encouraging message. Oubi BachirThe Saharawi representative in Europe points out on his social networks that “there are three extremely important elements” in the words of the European president: that “the consultation is equal to a referendum and the right to self-determination”, that “the people are equal to a referendum and the right to self-determination “, that “the people are not equal to the population or the Saharawis” and that “the future means that the basis is the will of the people, not an imposition, as is the Moroccan plan”.
In Rabat, Borel’s statements went down like a bucket of cold water. Since sending the letter to Pedro Sanchez a Mohammed VI in which the president assured that Spain “considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative presented in 2007 as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution of the dispute”, Rabat addressed the issue with a rare.
Speaking to El Espanyol, Bachir maintained that Borrell’s statement “is an acknowledgment of the failure of any plans or proposals that they want to impose on us, a decision outside the will of our people expressed through a referendum.”
[El camino de migas que explica el error de Sánchez con el Sáhara]
The Polisario believes that in this way Europe balances the balance of the conflict against the position of Spain, which bowed in March to Moroccan Autonomy Plan. That is why “he welcomes this declaration” and hopes “that it materializes in concrete facts”.
Morocco, for its part, maintains that the only solution to the conflict lies in the autonomy plan, which involves the annexation of Western Sahara as the “provinces of the South”. As expressed by King Mohammed VI, only “the general sovereignty of Morocco over its entire territory, as the only framework for resolving this artificial regional dispute” is envisaged.
No interference
When consulting these statements by Borrell, sources familiar with the conflict assured El Español that the government did not like some words from Mohammed VI, in which he applauded “the clear and responsible position of Spain, our neighbor who is well aware of the origin and the Reality of this dispute “and that this “positive position” is what allows “a new phase for the Association of Morocco and Spain”.
In his interview with TVE, Borrell denied that the EU had intervened in the change in Spain’s position. “We from Brussels are telling the Spanish government to align with the United States? Please, the Spanish government has its foreign policy. We are glad that relations with Morocco have improved,” he said.
In the month of March, after changing the position of the executive director of Sanchez to Western SaharaBorrell said this new position “does not contradict” that set by the EU, which is committed to a solution agreed by both sides under UN resolutions.
“The position of the EU remains the same. That is, full support and respect for the UN resolutions. And that any solution to the problem must be found within those resolutions. Which, by the way, is what the Letter sent by the Spanish government to Morocco,” Borrell insisted.
In fact, the spokeswoman for the European Commission on Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Nabila Massraliassured that the decision “must rest on commitments in accordance with the resolution of the United Nations Security Council”.