Ould Salek: “Alleged Moroccan withdrawal from Guerguerat is a deception of public opinion”

Sahrawi Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Salek said Monday that the UN resolution plan on the conflict in Western Sahara in 1990 and the 1991 ceasefire agreement “do not provide for the creation of passages or accesses in the Guerguerat region, pointing out that the allegations of a pseudo Moroccan withdrawal from that region “are only a deception of public opinion and a distortion of the truth”.

“The allegations of a Moroccan troops’ pull out from Guerguerat are only a deception of public opinion and a distortion of the truth, since the invading forces are still stationed there and control the illegal passage,” said Mr Ould Salek, during a press conference at the premises of the Embassy of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Algiers.

For the Saharawi side, the opening of a passage in the Guerguerat region is not based on any agreement concluded between the two parties of the conflict namely (Front Polisario and Morocco) under the aegis of the UN and is therefore Illegal and a source of tension, said the minister, stressing that the settlement plan and provisions of the ceasefire “do not foresee the opening of passages or accesses” to Guerguerat.

The Saharawi foreign minister underlined that the Moroccan occupier exploited the passage of Guerguerat as a “very specific economic outlet”, since it is an ideal gate “to funnel from there a significant rate of the first Moroccan production, namely narcotics which in 2016 accounted for 23% of Moroccan GDP”, as he put it.

As a recall, “this crisis erupted when the Moroccan regime wantonly encroached upon the border strip with Mauritania by asphalting a road extending to the Mauritanian borders,” said the Sahrawi foreign Minister, adding that the Moroccan regime “had the intention to set up barbed wires to isolate this Sahrawi region up to the Atlantic coasts”.

The text of Military Convention No. 1 on cease-fire clauses between the Saharawi National Liberation Army and the Moroccan Army stipulates that both parties “must retain their positions on the exact date and time of the Cease-fire “, which came into force on 6 September 1991.

The settlement plan made public on 18 June 1990 by the United Nations imposes on the two parties of the conflict (Front Polisario and Morocco) the full implementation of the clauses of the ceasefire, until the publication of the electoral lists for the referendum of Self-determination.

The Saharawi side, which has remained the sole cooperating party for the past 26 years, “once again blames the Moroccan government for the deterioration of the situation due to its failure to respect the relevant agreement signed with the Sahrawis and holds the United Nations responsible for the consequences of negligence and connivance at the Security Council”, Mr Ould Salek underscored.

Underlining the Saharawi side’s firm commitment to peace and to a just and peaceful solution, the Saharawi Minister reiterated willingness to cooperate with the UN Secretary General and his Special Envoy.