Zapatero Commends Spain’s ‘Courageous and Correct’ Stance on Moroccan Sahara

The position expressed and reiterated several times by the Spanish government on the Sahara issue is “courageous and correct”, said, Friday in Las Palmas, the former president of the Spanish government, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. “I think that the position of the president of the government Pedro Sanchez is courageous and correct. And I repeat, only courageous and difficult positions are valid in politics,” said Zapatero, in a statement to the press on the sidelines of the 1st International Conference on Peace and Security in the Sahara. He stressed the importance of the autonomy plan presented by Morocco, as it represents “an intermediate way”. Zapatero recalled that the Spanish government had already expressed in 2007 a favorable position to the Moroccan proposal, also backed by several international powers. “Politics is a question of coexistence, it is a question of reaching an agreement. Coexistence is possible,” he said, noting that the Moroccan autonomy plan has been hailed by the United Nations as “serious and credible”. “We cannot stand idly by in the face of an era of very serious conflicts in the geopolitical order,” he concluded.