Morocco remains available to continue negotiations on Sahara issue, ambassador
Morocco, Politics, 10/18/2001

Morocco said Tuesday it remains available to continue negotiations on the Sahara issue, so as to bring these negotiations to an end.

Morocco "remains available to continue, in good faith, the negotiations, under the auspices of the Secretary General, so as to bring these negotiations to an end, and that for the benefit of all the Maghreb region," said Morocco's Permanent Representative to the UN, Mohamed Bennouna, at the fourth Committee.

Bennouna, who made the statement after the Committee adopted, without vote, a draft resolution on the question of the Sahara, said "the Moroccan delegation retains the newly introduced elements in this resolution which fall in line with the efforts deployed by the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy in favor of an alternative to the settlement plan which is obviously in a deadlock."

"We also retain the fact that the General Assembly recalled the obligations under the international humanitarian law to release, without further delay, all the persons detained in camps," Bennouna said, expressing "hope that the encouragement by the General Assembly of the parties to pursue their negotiations in order to achieve a political solution will lead those who have not yet done so, to clarify their position regarding the draft framework agreement on the status of the Western Sahara, proposed by the Secretary general of the united Nations and to engage in finalizing it.

"We remain available to continue, in good faith, the negotiations, under the auspices of the Secretary General, so as to bring these negotiations to an end, and that for the benefit of all the Maghreb region," the Moroccan diplomat said.

The Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee on Tuesday urged, in a draft resolution on the question of the Sahara, that was adopted without vote, the parties to carry on the negotiations engaged under the aegis of the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General to reach a mutually accepted agreement on the Sahara issue.

After the adoption of the draft resolution, Senegal's permanent representative, Doudou Diop, said Senegal hails the adoption of this resolution as a new promising asset.

"We are hereby engaged at the side of the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy, who have spared no effort to materialize, in the draft framework agreement, the fundamental elements of a political solution to the much-delayed Sahara dossier," the Senegalese diplomat said, expressing hope that the parties would carry on negotiations on the basis of draft framework agreement to reach a political solution.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco's ambassadors to European Union countries meet in Brussels   (10/9/2001)
  Guinea Bissau denies backing to so-called Sahrawi republic   (10/6/2001)
  Most Sahrawis live peacefully in Moroccan Sahara   (10/4/2001)

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