Reacting to his Algerian counterpart, who spoke with apparent nervousness, Mr. Hilale immediately noted that the tone and terms of the Algerian ambassador’s speech flagrantly betray the bilateral nature of this regional dispute, stressing that the issue of the Moroccan Sahara is a “matter of geopolitics and of the regional hegemonic aim of his country and not of self-determination”.
Noting that the return of the Sahara to the motherland, Morocco, has definitively settled this question within the framework of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom, and this in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the resolutions of the Security Council and the right international, the Moroccan ambassador affirmed that the speeches and the acts of Algeria consecrate the bilaterality of the question of the Sahara.
Mr. Hilale considered it “surprising” that Algeria “captured a UN principle and its instrumentalization for the sole dispute of the Moroccan Sahara”, stressing that as Morocco has always affirmed, the principle of self-determination lato sensu cannot be of variable geometry.
“Didn’t the Algerian ambassador write in a letter to the Security Council, on July 13, that + all the peoples of the world + have the right to decide on their future?”, wondered Mr. Hilale, noting that Algeria, however, does nothing so that +all the peoples of the world+, without exception, can enjoy it one day.
“If Algeria’s obsessive advocacy is innocent, its single-minded defense of the principle of self-determination should not focus exclusively on the Moroccan Sahara issue alone, but should take an interest in all cases in the world,” he said. – he declared before the 4th commission of the UN General Assembly, adding that Algeria “makes fun every time, especially before this Commission, of defending this UN principle of self-determination”.
The Moroccan diplomat observed that the Algerian posture raises several legitimate questions: “where is Algeria and where is its obsessive attachment to the principle of self-determination when it comes to other issues under consideration by the 4th Committee? ”.
“What interests Algeria, of course, is Morocco and Morocco only. Its only and ultimate agenda is none other than the Moroccan Sahara”, he underlined, wondering if Algeria has the courage to formulate the same requests for the other questions debated within this Commission?.
“Of course not, Algeria has never been able to utter a single word in their favour,” he said, still wondering whether “the defense of the UN Charter authorizes a country, Algeria in this case, to proclaim itself the executor of this principle, in particular by resorting to an armed separatist group? Of course not”.
“Does the so-called selective promotion of a UN principle give a mandate to a country, in this case Algeria, to create an armed separatist group, shelter it, entrust it with part of its territory to plan and carry out its armed attacks against Morocco? Obviously, the answer is still no”, continued Mr. Hilale.
Morocco’s permanent representative to the UN also noted that Algeria’s actions contradict its claim for observer status in this regional dispute, noting that Algeria “dedicates its diplomacy, exclusively, to the promotion and defense of an armed group with proven links to terrorism, conducts hugely budgeted campaigns against Morocco with the sole objective of lending credibility to the illusion of a self-proclaimed puppet state in the Tindouf desert and obstructs the political process for the settlement of this dispute”.
“How then can Algeria shamelessly claim not to be a main party?” the ambassador asks, adding: “Hasn’t Algeria rejected the Framework Agreement proposed by James Baker in 2001? In what capacity did she do it? Didn’t Algeria propose the partition of the Moroccan Sahara in November 2001?, which Morocco vigorously rejected.
Mr. Hilale wondered again: “in what capacity did she propose this score? Didn’t Algeria interfere in the choice of Personal Envoys and Special Representatives of the Secretary-General? In what capacity did she do it? Hasn’t Algeria intervened, recently, even in the process of appointing the Force Commander of MINURSO? Reason why this position has been vacant for more than 7 months. In what capacity did she oppose this appointment?
And to continue: “Hasn’t Algeria been the only country in the world to reject Security Council Resolution 2602 by official press release from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs? In what capacity did she do it?
“Algeria, which continues to block the efforts of the Personal Envoy to relaunch the process of the round tables, as requested by resolution 2602, has it not rejected the said round tables by letter to the Security Council that she had previously taken part in it with two of her successive foreign ministers? In what capacity is she opposed to this process?” the Moroccan ambassador wondered again.
Mr. Hilale further noted that the morality of this regional dispute is that the question of the Sahara “would never have existed if Algeria had been a peaceful neighbour, attached and faithful to the values of good neighborliness and respectful of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations”.
“This brotherly country, which the Kingdom has firmly supported in its fight for liberation, has for five decades ignored the human, geographical, historical, religious links and community of destinies between the two peoples, relentlessly with all the means at its disposal, to thwart Morocco’s recovery of its Sahara”, deplored the diplomat, launching to the address of his Algerian counterpart: “there has never been a + Western Sahara + even in advent of its occupation by Spain in 1884. There is and there will never be only the Moroccan Sahara”.
“To the instigators of separatism and the mercenaries in their pay, as well as to all their rare unconditional supporters who still persist, through ignorance, dishonesty or ideological complicity, in wanting to question the sovereignty of Morocco over its Saharan provinces, I remind them of the Mantra of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, May God Assist Him: + Morocco will remain in its Sahara and the Sahara will remain in its Morocco until the end of time +”, insisted Mr. Hilale.
Referring to the disastrous situation in the camps of Tindouf, in the South-West of Algeria, the Moroccan diplomat indicated that the populations sequestered in these camps “have been kept, for almost five decades, in the most inhuman conditions in the world. ”, noting that these populations “suffer the worst violations of their most basic rights and continue to be the only ones in the world not to be registered and counted, in violation of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolutions, because of Algeria’s opposition to their census”.
He specified that the separatist armed group “polisario” proceeds to the forced separation of children from their families for their military enlistment, as indicated in the various reports of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR). “This is a war crime and all those responsible for it must be brought to account before international justice,” concluded the ambassador.