Arab Lawyers support Morocco's right to retrieve Sebta and Melillia

The Arab Lawyers Union renewed its backing to Morocco's right to retrieve its northern cities, Sebta and Mellilia, and the neighboring Jaafarine Islands, which are still under Spanish rule.

"The Arab Lawyers Union fully backs Morocco's right to establish its sovereignty over all its national territory, in Sebta, Melillia and the Jaafarine Islands," stated the union's secretariat general in a report submitted to the permanent bureau's meeting held recently in Tripoli, northern Lebanon.

The union also called for the immediate withdrawal of Spanish forces from the two occupied cities and pointed out that Spanish authorities are still taking measures to confirm the separation of the areas from their motherland, Morocco.

The report denounced in this regard the setting by Spanish authorities of barbed wire entanglements around Sebta and Melillia, allegedly to struggle against emigration from North Africa. These wires erect a barrier between Morocco and its two northern cities, the report stated.

The permanent bureau's meeting was attended by an 18-member Moroccan delegation, in addition to delegations from Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, Libya, Syria and Tunisia.

The bureau's coming session will be held in Morocco in April 1999.