Mexico will continue to observe 'positive neutrality' in Sahara dispute
The Mexican Government has pledged to continue to observe what it described as a "positive neutrality" to help the United nations in their efforts to settle the Sahara dispute opposing Morocco to the Algeria-backed separatist movement "Polisario."
Mexico "will continue to observe a positive neutrality" said Wednesday night the Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez adding that his country supports the UN Secretary General's efforts to reach a "final and negotiated solution" to the three-decade long dispute.
The Mexican official was speaking at a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart Mohammed Benaissa on the occasion of the official visit of King Mohammed VI to the South American country.
The Moroccan diplomat said on his part that it was Morocco which first proposed two decades ago the holding of a referendum in the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by the Kingdom in 1975 under the Madrid Accords signed with Spain and Mauritania.
The Polisario, backed by Algeria which has been since then providing this separatist movement with political, military, financial and logistic support, is seeking to separate this territory from the rest of the Kingdom.
Benaissa also said that it was Morocco which saw to it that the latest resolution of the UN security Council asks the parties (including Algeria) to negotiate and to reach a "negotiated and consensus-based political solution" to the dispute.
A joint communiqué released at the end of the monarch's visit to Mexico said both Morocco and Mexico have "renewed their support to the UN efforts in the Sahara in order to reach a negotiated and final solution to the issue."
It added that the monarch who has informed the Mexican president of the latest developments in the Sahara issue, reiterated Morocco's readiness to continue to cooperate sincerely and strongly with the United Nations and all concerned parties in order to reach a negotiated and final political solution to the issue.
Mexico is the first leg of a five-nation South American tour the monarch has kicked off on Tuesday, and which will also include Brazil, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
