LONDON – APS.dz.- British authorities have snubbed a recent Moroccan conference in London aimed at “promoting” international investment in occupied Western Sahara, where Rabat claims territorial “sovereignty” over natural resources and products.
Organised by Moroccan officials, including the minister in charge of investment, convergence and public policy evaluation, Mohcine Jazouli, the conference was attended by just 30 people, the vast majority of them Moroccans.
Apart from the President of the British Chamber of Commerce for Morocco, Stephen Orr, who attended the meeting, no British officials were present.
Among the British companies taking part in the event was X-link, which is involved in exporting electricity to the UK.
The Polisario Front, the sole legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, contacted this company when the project was announced, and the officials of “X-link” assured that the project does not affect the territory of occupied Western Sahara.
The boycott of this meeting by the British authorities is yet another slap in the face of Morocco, which continues to divert the focus of its conferences towards events dedicated to occupied Western Sahara and to mobilise its media and diplomatic apparatus for propaganda aimed at disguising the implacable reality of the legal status of the Saharawi territories.
It is also part of the official position in favour of a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, which London has repeatedly expressed.
Last July, Graham Stuart, then British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, called for a “just, lasting and mutually acceptable” political solution that would allow for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.
“We strongly support the work of Staffan de Mistura as the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara and encourage all parties involved to make the most of this opportunity for a renewed political process to achieve a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, based on compromise, which provides for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”, Mr Stuart said in response to a written question from a Conservative MP.
In late October 2021, James Cleverly, then British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, had indicated that the UK considered the status of Western Sahara to be “undetermined”, reiterating his country’s support for UN resolutions on the status of this non-self-governing territory.
This position was reiterated in November of the same year when James Cleverly, the current Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, called for a return to the UN-led political process.
On 29 September 2021, the Court of the European Union annulled the two fisheries and agriculture agreements between Morocco and the EU, extended to occupied Western Sahara, on the grounds that they were concluded in violation of the 2016 decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and without the consent of the Sahrawi people.
