Honduras did suspend recognition of Polisario, FM spokesperson confirms

The spokesperson of the Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ministry has confirmed that Honduras suspended its recognition of the so-called Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR/self-proclaimed by the Polisario).

The spokesperson described as baseless the news circulated by some press bodies on Honduras' denial of the move.

The spokesperson underlined that the Latin American country indeed suspended recognition of the SADR. The Honduran foreign affairs department said in a note handed last January 28 to the Moroccan ambassador in Tegucigalpa, wherein it stressed that "the recognition by the Honduran republic will depend on the outcome of the referendum" that the U.N. tries to hold in the Sahara.

The Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ministry lauded Tegucigalpa's move as a victory for international legality. The decision is the result of the growing awareness that the Polisario entity is artificial, ephemeral and doomed to disappear, the ministry said.

The U.N.-brokered referendum seeks to determine whether the Sahara --a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975-- sets up on its own or remains part of Morocco.