France’s Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty over its Sahara is ‘Unquestionable’ – French Senate Speaker

Rabat – France’s support for Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara is “unquestionable”, Speaker of the French Senate Gérard Larcher said on Monday in Rabat, welcoming the Autonomy Plan proposed by Morocco as a “prospect for building the present and future of this region of the Kingdom”.

Following talks with Chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) Khalihenna Ould Errachid, Larcher reiterated the importance of France’s position on this issue in a statement to MAP, recalling that “France is undoubtedly the country that knows this region best”, a knowledge that lends it a special responsibility and legitimacy to explain this situation on the international stage.

“I want to reaffirm that this is not the position of a government or an Executive (…) it is indeed France’s policy”, he argued.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to assess the situation in the Kingdom’s Southern provinces, and to examine the prospects offered by the Autonomy Plan, Larcher stated.

The Speaker of the French Senate, who was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Chairman of the Morocco-France Friendship Group Christian Cambon, President of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Cédric Perrin, and French Ambassador to Rabat Christophe Lecourtier, will also visit Laâyoune, in the Moroccan Sahara.