Sahara Issue: Morocco’s Autonomy Plan, ‘Only Truly Realistic Solution’ – Former Ambassador

The autonomy plan, presented by Morocco to resolve the dispute over the Sahara, remains “the only truly realistic solution,” said Jorge Dezcallar, former Spanish ambassador to Morocco and former director of the Spanish National Intelligence Center. Autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is “the only truly realistic solution that exists” to close this file definitively, noted Dezcallar in an interview with the La Provincia, Spanish daily, dismissing the idea of a referendum on self-determination. “There will never be a referendum,” stressed Dezcallar, who was also his country’s ambassador to the United States and the Vatican. “The time has come to unblock a 47-year-old status quo and resolve the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.” The position of this diplomat adds to those expressed by several experts, observers and Spanish officials in favor of the the Moroccan initiative’s pre-eminence, thus confirming the new position of Madrid on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara. The President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, had recognized, in a message sent on March 14 to HM King Mohammed VI, “the importance of the Sahara issue for Morocco.” In this respect, he said that “Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative, presented in 2007, as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving the dispute,” stressing “Morocco’s serious and credible efforts within the framework of the United Nations to find a mutually acceptable solution.”