RABAT: British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Sunday that Morocco\u2019s autonomy plan for the territory of Western Sahara was the \u201cmost credible\u201d solution to the decades-long dispute, reversing London\u2019s long-standing position.
\nWestern Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed in its entirety for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.
\nMorocco has been campaigning for broad support for its autonomy plan after obtaining US recognition of Morocco\u2019s sovereignty over the disputed territory in 2020, in exchange for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel.
\n\u201cThe United Kingdom considers Morocco\u2019s autonomy proposal submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute,\u201d Lammy told reporters in Rabat.
\nBritain previously backed self-determination for the disputed territory, which Morocco claims as an integral part of its kingdom.<\/p>\n
Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita welcomed the shift, saying the new British position contributed \u201cgreatly to advancing this momentum and promoting the UN path toward a definitive and mutually acceptable solution based on the autonomy initiative.\u201d
\nRabat\u2019s push for support for its autonomy plan has seen success.
\nSpain and Germany now officially back the Moroccan autonomy plan, while France last summer recognized Morocco\u2019s sovereignty over the territory.
\n\u201cThis year is a vital window of opportunity to secure a resolution before we reach 50 years of the dispute in November,\u201d said Lammy.
\nThe foreign minister also said it encouraged \u201crelevant parties to engage urgently and positively with the United Nations-led political process.\u201d
\nThe United Nations considers Western Sahara a \u201cnon-self-governing territory\u201d and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory\u2019s future.
\nBut Rabat has repeatedly ruled out any vote where independence is an option, instead proposing an autonomy plan.
\nThe ceasefire collapsed in mid-November 2020 after Moroccan troops were deployed to the far south of the territory to remove separatists blocking the only route to Mauritania \u2014 a route they claimed was illegal, as it did not exist in 1991.
\nThe UN Security Council is calling for negotiations without preconditions, while Morocco insists they focus solely on its autonomy plan.
\n\u201cThe only viable and durable solution will be one that is mutually acceptable to the relevant parties and is arrived at through compromise,\u201d added Lammy.
\nIn a joint statement, the United Kingdom noted that its export credit agency, UK Export Finance, may consider supporting projects in the Sahara as part of its commitment to mobilize 5 billion British pounds (approximately 5.9 billion euros) for new economic initiatives in Morocco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RABAT: British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Sunday that Morocco\u2019s autonomy plan for the territory of Western Sahara was the \u201cmost credible\u201d solution to the decades-long dispute, reversing London\u2019s long-standing position. Western Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed in its entirety for decades by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":81911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81918,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81901\/revisions\/81918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}