UMA: irreversible choice provided countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity be respected, FM

Morocco is watchful that the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA) remain a strategic and irreversible choice, provided the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of countries be respected, affirmed Monday, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa.

"The attempts to convene meetings from time to time in order to reactivate the Union are, themselves, confronted sometimes to difficulties," Benaissa told the press at the end of a meeting of UMA foreign ministers held on Monday morning behind closed doors to consider several resolutions pertaining to the UMA.

Benaissa deplored the obstacles that always block the concretization of the UMA project, which is still in the gestation stage.

Algeria has recently made "surprising" official positions with regard to the Sahara issue which were "in contradiction with the recent dynamic in the region."

A communique released on Sunday by the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry deplored the fact that Algeria adopts a systematic bias against the interests of the Kingdom of Morocco by presenting a "truncated reading of international legality and borrowing an argument that strays from the spirit and letter of recent Security Council resolutions" on the Sahara issue.

Since the retrieval, in 1975, of its Southern provinces, known as the Sahara, under the Madrid accords, Morocco has been facing the opposition of the Algeria-backed separatist "Polisario" movement which, claims the separation of the Southern provinces from Morocco.

Furthermore, Algeria still asks Morocco to "accept and implement" the overlooked 2003 Baker plan II, though "the UN officially called for the need to come out of the current impasse and advance toward a political and lasting solution to be negotiated." The Moroccan diplomat said "the Kingdom deeply regrets this verbal escalation, and all attempts that harm the sovereignty of the country and the independence of states."