France states that position on Western Sahara is “irreversible”

A France today considered Paris’s position “irreversible” that “the present and the future” of the Western Sahara fall within the scope of Moroccan sovereignty.

The position was reiterated by the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, who said it to the Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita during a visit to Essaouira in southern Morocco.

In a statement released by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Barrot defended the continuation of the dialogue and renewed Paris' support for the personal envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura, on the mission of “facilitator”, based on Security Council Resolution 2797.

“ The autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 is the only basis for achieving a just, lasting and negotiated political solution,” said the head of French diplomacy, who stressed that France remains committed to a “final political solution” to this issue.

During the meeting, the two ministers praised the “exceptional” partnership between Paris and Rabat and addressed regional and international issues of common interest, including the situation in the Middle East and the Sahel region.

The meeting took place in the margins of the World Forum on Women for Peace, organized by the association Les Guerrières de la Paix, in which the two heads of diplomacy participated in a high-level panel.

More than half a century after the withdrawal of Spain from the Western Sahara, the conflict in the former Spanish colony changed significantly with the end of the mandate of the United Nations Referendum Mission in Western Sahara (Minursus).

A crusader veto of the United States and Russia at the United Nations Security Council precipitated, on 30 October, the end of the mandate of the mission, created in 1991 and failed to overcome the differences between the parties to proceed with a referendum on self-determination.

The United Nations keeps the Western Sahara on the list of pending non-autonomous decolonisation territories.

This morning, in Madrid, the Polisario Front, which is fighting for independence from the Western Sahara, admitted to resorting to “warlike and non-warlike” legal instruments to defend the Sahrawi cause and again denounced Morocco’s military movements after the non-renewal of the UN mission in the territory.

“ We Sahrawis are willing to use and make use of legal, warlike and non-warlike instruments to defend our cause,” said Prime Minister of the Arab Republic Saraui Democratic (RASD), Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun.

For Beyun, international law recognizes the possibility of “armed struggle” to defend “legitimate rights” of a people and that almost all the countries of the UN General Assembly recognise the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people, although the Security Council has not renewed Minurse.

Polisario called this week for a “general mobilization” and Beyun explained today that this means that the Sahrawi must mobilize in all “fronts of combat”, in all kinds of institutions, from weapons to education, health or culture.

The Polisario leader has ensured that there will be no peace and stability in the region until the Sahrawis have the right to decide in a referendum.

The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara is considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, although Rabat has control of almost 80% of this almost desert territory of 266,000 square kilometers.

Morocco, for whom the referendum on self-determination for the Western Sahara is an issue that is already out of the question, defends and has promoted the proposal to give greater autonomy to the territory, which is rejected strictly by the Polisario Front.

The Moroccan proposal has had increasing international support in recent years, including from countries such as the United States, Spain and France.