Morocco will not relinquish an inch of its territory
Morocco, Politics, 3/6/2002

Morocco's King Mohammed VI reiterated in Laayoun on Wednesday that Morocco will not relinquish a single inch of the territory of its Sahara.

The sovereign solemnly declared, in his name and on behalf of all the Moroccan people that "Morocco shall not relinquish an inch of its Sahara territory, which is inalienable and indivisible."

In a speech he delivered Wednesday in Laayoune, where he arrived in the morning after a visit Tuesday to Dakhla, king Mohammed VI also underscored the long history of the steadfastness of the southern provinces, which remained throughout ages "part and parcel of the national territory and a fundamental component of the historical entity and civilizational identity of Morocco."

The royal speech further stressed the unity of all Moroccans around the custodian of the Throne, "in order to wage the struggle for their full and thorough territorial integrity" and their strong commitment to their sacred values, namely historical and religious legitimacy, founded on the Bei'a (allegiance), and on full national sovereignty as well as on the unfailing national unanimity shaped around these immutable values.

"Our meeting with you today, at a time the expansionist and hegemonic designs of the avowed opponent of our territorial integrity have become clear to the world, only reaffirms our firm attachment to these sacred tenets and our flat refusal of any project that might impair Morocco's territorial integrity and its sovereignty over its southern provinces and that threatens peace and stability in the Arab Maghreb region," the king insisted.

"When we pledged to negotiate, for a fair and lasting peace, on the basis of the UN framework agreement, to which we nonetheless remain committed, it was because this agreement enjoyed large, influential international approval and encouragement. It was also essentially because this agreement falls in the frame of the respect of Morocco's sovereignty and territorial integrity and because it suits our strategic option, based on democracy, regionalization and decentralization as well as on the preservation of the stability of the Arab Maghreb and the consolidation of the unity of its peoples, rather than on the disintegration of this unity through the artificial creation of factitious entities," the king went on.

The sovereign further voiced conviction that the Moroccan people will maintain their unity and cohesion around the throne and remain the bulwark that protects the entity of the united Moroccan nation, defends its sovereignty and enables it to move forward in completing the construction of Morocco as a country of unity, democracy and progress.

After he recalled that he has announced plans to turn the Moroccan southern provinces into a model of regional, integrated development, he stressed that the local populations will be closely associated to designing and implementing these plans and announced the creation of a special agency for the development of the provinces of the south.

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