Paris has “officialized” its actual support for the occupation

The issue of France’s support for the so-called autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in the occupied Western Sahara continues to interest the Western media, especially the Spanish media, which criticized the move and considered it “contrary to international legitimacy”, which was confirmed by the Spanish news site “Desferadolquera”, which confirmed that Paris, by supporting the imaginary Moroccan proposal, has “officialized its support for Morocco’s occupation of the territory”.
The site wrote in an article dedicated to the letter sent by President Macron to the King of Morocco, in which he stated that he considers that “the present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of the alleged Moroccan sovereignty”, that France is “officializing” what was originally its actual position in the Sahara conflict.
The Spanish website added that “by taking this turn, Paris breaks with its historical position, which, like most of the international community, is based on resolving the conflict in accordance with United Nations resolutions,” noting that these resolutions recognized the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination since 1966, a principle that was emphasized in the 1991 ceasefire agreements and the establishment of the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum on Self-Determination in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
The Spanish website pointed out that the new French position not only went beyond the framework of the United Nations to “stand on the margins of international legitimacy,” but also confirms that France has always been “the main supporter of Rabat on the international scene,” and that its support for the so-called autonomy plan was “a reality.”
In this context, it cited that “France has always been historically known for its support for the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, as its economic companies and citizens were among the first to set foot on Sahrawi lands after the so-called “Green March,” and it is also behind the financing of many economic projects in the occupied territories.”
Worse still, the site says, it reveals that France also played a “major role” in supplying weapons during the first war in Western Sahara (1975-1991), “and even intervened militarily to save Morocco, which suffered losses in the face of the fierce Sahrawi resistance.”
Today, “this support takes the form of an institutional declaration,” as indicated by this site, which also affirmed that “the French decision will not change the legal status of Western Sahara, which remains a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonization according to the United Nations, nor the war raging in the region since November 2020,” following Morocco’s violation of the ceasefire agreement signed between the two parties to the conflict (Morocco and the Polisario Front) in 1991.
However, France’s support for the Moroccan position “would hinder the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the resolution of the conflict that has already reached a dead end,” according to the same site.
According to the Spanish website, the political turmoil in Africa, with many governments turning their backs on France, explains Paris’ decision to support the illusory autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 in Western Sahara. It concluded by saying that “France is strengthening its relations with its best ally on the continent at a time when it is losing influence in the region.”