The United Kingdom, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has taken a radical turn to its strategy in North Africa by supporting this Sunday in Rabat the Moroccan Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara, after almost half a century of neutrality in the international contentious on the old Spanish colony. The initiative presented to the United Nations in 2007, which offers is now seen by London as “the most credible, viable and pragmatic base for a lasting resolution of the dispute”, in the words of the head of British diplomacy, Labor David Lammy.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nase Burita, stood out in a joint appearance at the headquarters of his department that the declaration signed by the United Kingdom marks a key state. Together with the United States, France and Spain, in addition to Russia, the so -called group of friends of the Western Sahara within the United Nations, the informal forum of more influential countries in the resolutions on a territory that was the Spanish province number 53.
The Polisario Front claims a self -determination plan through a referendum that opens the door to independence. Morocco de fact administers 80% of the Saharawi territory, while the independentistas control the remaining 20% from the camps that house thousands of refugees in Tinduf (southwest of Algeria).
Washington recognized in 2020, during Donald Trump’s first presidential mandate, Rabat’s sovereignty about Sahara. France, which supports the autonomy plan since 2007, took another step last year when President Emmanuel Macron proclaimed before the Parliament of Rabat that his country “only contemplates the future of Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.” Three years ago, to its historical line of neutrality in the conflict, as ancient administrator power, considering the autonomic initiative as the “most serious, realistic and credible base”, to end the conflict.
During their meeting in Rabat, both ministers signed four agreements on education, health, water and technological innovation, in addition to a joint statement that seals a diplomatic and economic alliance. The new position of the United Kingdom is part of a process of “impulse to accelerate the solution of the conflict”, “Morocco does not want a logic of permanence of the situation when. There is now an opportunity to achieve a solution based on autonomy under his sovereignty, ”he added.
In the first visit of a Secretary of the Foreign Office to Morocco in 14 years, the British minister has seconded the formula used by the head of the Spanish government in 2022. In an appearance without questions before the press, Lammy said in Rabat that “the United Kingdom will act bilaterally and internationally in line with this position [favorable al plan de autonomía marroquí] To achieve a solution to the conflict. ”He also expressed his desire to reach an arrangement“ before 50 years ”of the contentious. Next November, the massive popular mobilization over the desert colonial territory organized by Morocco, which ended up forcing the departure of Spain from the Western Sahara three months later.
“This British position opens the road to economic investments in the provinces of the South [denominación habitual del Sáhara Occidental en Marruecos]where several British economic groups are exploring opportunities in the region, ”said Minister Burita, who showed visible satisfaction after the new diplomatic achievement achieved.
Lammy, meanwhile, said that the United Kingdom wants to participate in the programs of “the signed agreements will allow British companies to obtain good results in the biggest soccer scenario,” he said, in reference to the necessary infrastructure for the 2030 World Cup, that the Maghreb country coorganizes with Spain and Portugal. UK Export Finance, the British Internationalization of Economics Agency, raises investments of about 6,000 million euros in Morocco, including some projects in the territory of Western Sahara, as a gateway to Africa, according to the British-Mercarquí joint statement cited by the official MAP news agency.
