Any terror risk in Western Sahara stems from Morocco’s illegal occupation, the territory’s independence movement said on Tuesday, dismissing a Moroccan warning that an independent state could harbour terrorists.
Mohamed Abdelaziz, President of the self-proclaimed government in exile for Western Sahara and of the Polisario independence movement, told Algerian state radio that Morocco’s policy on Western Sahara was the real security risk.
”It’s the step that Morocco has taken against Western Sahara … that could be the source of the development of extremism, whether in Morocco or the entire region,” he said.
Morocco’s King Mohammed said on November 6 that any future independent state in the disputed territory could harbour terrorists and bandits.
The king was addressing the nation on the 31st anniversary of the Green March when Morocco seized the former Spanish colony, claiming centuries-old rights over the territory rich in phosphates, fisheries and possibly offshore oil.
That triggered a guerrilla war that ended in 1991, when the United Nations brokered a ceasefire and sent in peacekeepers in anticipation of a self-determination referendum.
The vote never took place and Morocco now insists the most it will offer is regional autonomy.
Abdelaziz said he could assure the king that an independent state would never allow terrorism to develop. An independent government would invite Morocco to work with it to counter terrorism and illegal trade, he said.
On October 31, a resolution adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council proposed no new substantive steps for resolving the dispute while reaffirming the body’s support for a solution that would ”provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. – Reuters