Italian MPs hold intensive talks in Rabat

A visiting delegation from the foreign relations committee at the Italian chamber of representatives carried on contacts with Moroccan officials with a meeting on Tuesday with Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

During the meeting, the prime minister made a historical survey on the Moroccan Sahara issue, the Spanish colonization of the territory, the migration of the Sahara's inhabitants towards the northern provinces to flee colonial repression, and the Green March that peacefully liberated the southern provinces.

The prime minister also explained that it was Morocco that proposed the organization of a referendum when the Algerian-backed Polisario movement claimed sovereignty over the territory that was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords.

The head of the Italian delegation, Vito Leccese, expressed hope that the Sahara issue would be settled so that Morocco can play its pioneering role in the Mediterranean basin.

He said the main purpose of the parliamentary delegation's visit is to get informed about the Sahara issue.

The Italian MPs also conferred with members of the foreign affairs committee at the house of representatives (lower house) on the kingdom's territorial integrity.

Talks surveyed the major phases of the national struggle to perfect the country's territorial integrity and the obstacles erected by Morocco's enemies to hamper the implementation of the U.N settlement plan in the Moroccan Sahara.

The Moroccan parliamentarians renewed in this regard Morocco's attachment to the right of all Sahrawis to participate in the referendum provided for in the U.N settlement plan.

The referendum in the Sahara will decide whether the territory stands on its own, as claimed by the polisario, or integrates with the Morocco.

The referendum has been repeatedly delayed because of disagreements over who should be included in the voters' lists.

The two sides also discussed means of consolidating cooperation between the two parliaments and stressed the need to promote relations between parliaments of the northern and southern Mediterranean countries, as an adequate frame for a fruitful cooperation between the two banks of the Mediterranean.