{"id":32348,"date":"2017-02-06T00:52:03","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T00:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/morocco-will-never-recognise-w-sahara-deputy-fm\/"},"modified":"2017-02-06T00:53:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T00:53:15","slug":"morocco-will-never-recognise-w-sahara-deputy-fm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/morocco-will-never-recognise-w-sahara-deputy-fm\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco will never recognise W Sahara: deputy FM"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Nasser Bourita says Rabat will never change stance that Western Sahara is an integral part of its territory.}<\/p>\n

Morocco will “never recognise” Western Sahara’s independence despite rejoining the African Union after a decades-long dispute over the territory, Nasser Bourita, Morocco’s deputy foreign minister said.<\/p>\n

Last Monday, the AU approved Morocco’s re-entry into the bloc which it quit in 1984 in protest at the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) declared by the Polisario Front at the height of a war for the territory.<\/p>\n

“Not only does Morocco not recognise – and will never recognise – this so-called entity,” Bourita told website Le Desk in an interview on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“It will [also] redouble its efforts so the small minority of countries, particularly African, which recognise it, change their positions.”<\/p>\n

AU membership would not change Morocco’s stance that the Western Sahara is an integral part of its territory, he said.<\/p>\n

Monday’s summit in Addis Ababa followed an intense diplomatic battle with the Polisario’s backers, led by Algeria and South Africa, which opposed Morocco rejoining the AU.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the head of Western Sahara’s Polisario Front has said “all options are open” in its independence struggle from Morocco, but called for talks after the kingdom rejoined the African Union.<\/p>\n

Polisario head and SADR president Brahim Ghali told AFP in an interview on Sunday that the move did not fundamentally change the situation.<\/p>\n

“We always look for the peaceful way” to resolve the conflict, Ghali told AFP at a Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria.<\/p>\n

“But all options remain open,” he said, hinting that a return to armed struggle was possible.<\/p>\n

Thousands of Sahrawis are settled in five camps around Tindouf, where they receive aid from UN agencies and international NGOs.<\/p>\n

Efforts to reach a negotiated solution for the territory have borne little fruit.<\/p>\n

Ghali, who took over as leader of the Algeria-backed Polisario on the death of his predecessor Mohamed Abdelaziz in May 2016, said he hoped new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will push for a return to talks.<\/p>\n

“We hope that he will have the necessary support of the Security Council to lead the negotiations that will enable the self-determination of our people,” Ghali said.<\/p>\n

A UN peacekeeping force, United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), was set up in 1991 to monitor the ceasefire and organise a poll on the future of the territory.<\/p>\n

The SADR, which remains a member of the AU, demands independence and a UN-supervised referendum to resolve the conflict.<\/p>\n

Morocco, which controls 90 percent of the territory including its three main towns, insists it is an integral part of the kingdom and that only autonomy is on the table.<\/p>\n

\"Last<\/figure>\n

Source:Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Nasser Bourita says Rabat will never change stance that Western Sahara is an integral part of its territory.} Morocco will “never recognise” Western Sahara’s independence despite rejoining the African Union after a decades-long dispute over the territory, Nasser Bourita, Morocco’s deputy foreign minister said. Last Monday, the AU approved Morocco’s re-entry into the bloc which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[160],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-theophile-niyitegeka"],"bylines":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"contributors":[{"id":160,"name":"Th\u00e9ophile Niyitegeka","slug":"theophile-niyitegeka","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":3}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32348"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32348"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}