The Foreign Minister of Morocco, Naser Burita, has defended this Thursday in Madrid the Moroccan Autonomy Plan for the Western Sahara, ensuring that those who insist on claiming a self -determination referendum “do not want a solution” and seek to “keep another 50 years” to Saharawal refugees in the Algerian desert. Burita has made a closed defense of Rabat’s proposal about the Spanish ex -colonia in a joint appearance with her Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, in which questions have not been admitted. The head of Moroccan diplomacy has assured that the support provided by the Spanish government to Rabat’s proposal “is in parallel to that of the international community” and is shared by more than 22 countries of the European Union.
The two ministers have met in a surprise meeting that did not appear on the public agenda of Albares and which was announced on Wednesday afternoon through a statement from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The objective of the meeting was to review the fulfillment of the roadmap Agree on the occasion of the visit three years ago, in April 2022, President Pedro Sánchez made Rabat that an end to the open diplomatic crisis after the arrival in Spain of the Leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali. To receive medical treatment. Both Albares and Burita have congratulated the good condition of bilateral relations and have agreed that they are in their “best historical moment.”
The meeting is produced in the context of a reinforcement of the Moroccan position over Sahara after the back of the Trump administration and the French government, which have fissured their autonomy plan for the Spanish excolonia by presenting it as the only way to reach a solution to the conflict, discarding the self -determination referendum claimed by the Polisario Front and backed by the United Nations. The Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, already aligned with Rabat’s position in the visit that in March 2022 referred to Mohamed VI, although it was not so far, since he then described the Moroccan Plan as autonomy as “the most serious, credible and realistic base for the resolution of this difference”; although without excluding others. That letter allowed to close the diplomatic crisis that opened in May 2021 and that included the emergence in Ceuta of more than 10,000 irregular immigrants.
Last Monday, Burita met in Paris with her French counterpart, Jean-Nöel Barrot. After the meeting, Quai d’Orsay released a statement in which he assured that the Moroccan Autonomy Plan “is the only basis for reaching a fair, lasting and negotiated political solution according to the resolutions of the United Nations” of the contentious about the Spanish ex -colonia. They are the same words used by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in the letter that referred to King Mohamed VI on July 30 and that they explained the turn of the French position on Sahara, one step beyond Spain in its alignment with Rabat. This turn has meant the opening of a diplomatic crisis between France and Algeria, as happened to Spain.
As Burita said in statements to the media, the support of Paris is not limited only to words but is being materialized with facts, such as the change of the official French map to include the Sahara in the Moroccan state, the visits of high French positions to the excolonia or the next celebration “in the southern regions” of a meeting organized by the external ministries of the two countries. The official French statement, meanwhile, includes “France’s commitment to accompany the efforts of Morocco in favor of the economic and social development of these regions for the benefit of local populations.”
On April 8, Burita was received in Washington by the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who reiterated the support of the Trump administration to Rabat. Rubio stressed that the United States supports “the proposal of serious, credible and realistic autonomy of Morocco as a basis for a fair and lasting solution of the dispute.” Trump already supported the Moroccan condition of Sahara in December 2020, after losing the elections to the Democrat Joe Biden, in exchange for the normalization of Moroccan relations with Israel.
This is the first visit of the Head of Moroccan diplomacy to Madrid since November 2019, when he met with his then counterpart Josep Borrell. On the contrary, Albares has traveled to Rabat several times after the closing of the diplomatic crisis, the last one in February 2024, accompanying the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
