Morocco threatens to invade liberated territories of Western Saharan

TSA.dz.- Is Morocco planning to invade the liberated Western Saharan territories east of the separation wall? This is at least what the kingdom’s ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale, suggests.

Western Sahara is de facto divided into two territories, the western part under Moroccan occupation and the eastern part under the control of the Polisario Front, with the presence of UN observers. The two territories are separated by a sand wall from north to south erected by Morocco in the 1980s.

Omar Hilale pointed to alleged Polisario obstructions to the work of the UN Mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO) teams to justify a possible invasion of the territories located east of the wall. The diplomat mentioned “blackmail of hunger and thirst” that, according to him, the Polisario would exercise on the “team sites” of the Minurso.

Omar Hilale made these statements at a press conference in New York while the UN Security Council had just renewed the mandate of Minurso for one year, Thursday 27 October.

He described these alleged Polisario actions as a “serious mistake” and, using Moroccan rhetoric, likened them to what “Daech and Al Qaeda are doing in the Sahel”.

If these “obstructions” persist, Omar Hilale threatens the UN with the withdrawal of its observers, which, he argues, “would create a new situation on the ground.

Continuing his reasoning, the Moroccan diplomat said that his country would then be entitled to return to the pre-ceasefire situation of 1991, “legally and on the ground”.

More explicitly, Omar Hilale indicated that “if the UN withdraws, Morocco would be entitled to take back the part of the Sahara that was handed over to Minurso”.