Thanks to Resolution 2797, UN is Moving from Managing Moroccan Sahara Issue to Resolving it, Says Ambassador Hilale

United Nations (New York) – Security Council Resolution 2797 marked a “significant turning point” in the United Nations’ handling of the Moroccan Sahara issue, “moving from a focus on managing the issue to one of resolving it,” emphasized Omar Hilale, Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on Tuesday in New York.

This resolution, which was applaud by all parties, constitutes an “irreversible turning point compared to all previous Security Council resolutions,” argued Hilale, speaking before the UN Fourth Committee, noting that this resolution has “enshrined the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative as the only to resolve this regional dispute, putting it at the heart of the political process of negotiations.”

The resolution also, for the first time, “established the status of autonomy in the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” he noted, adding that the UN document reaffirmed the responsibility of the four parties: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the “Polisario,” which the Council called upon to engage, in good faith and without preconditions, in the search for a definitive political solution.

Resolution 2797 also facilitated direct discussions among the four parties during three meetings held in Washington and Madrid, co-chaired by the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy and the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, and enabled Morocco to present its detailed autonomy plan, detailing the functions, powers, and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

This autonomy, Hilale emphasized, “reconciles political realism, democratic governance, and the aspirations of the people.”

Noting that this “unprecedented political momentum requires each party to assume its historic responsibility in implementing this resolution,” Hilale stressed that Security Council resolutions “must be implemented; discussions must be conducted without preconditions; good faith must be demonstrated; commitments undertaken must be honored; and the ceasefire must be re-established and observed.”

Furthermore, Ambassador Hilale noted that beyond its political dimension, Resolution 2797 and the negotiating momentum it has generated carry, above all, a humanitarian promise, emphasizing that “behind every resolution, there are women, men, and young people waiting in the Tindouf camps.”

“A purely humanitarian approach to this situation, the world’s second-longest-running refugee crisis, cannot continue for another half-century,” regretted Hilale, emphasizing that, for this reason, Morocco is calling for the people in the Tindouf camps to benefit from the lasting solutions provided for under international law and the doctrine and practice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

These durable solutions, he explained, are voluntary repatriation, His Majesty King Mohamed VI having already issued a solemn appeal in this regard, resettlement in a third country, or integration into the host country, according to the free and voluntary choice of these populations.

“Any procrastination or imposition of conditions will be legally unlawful, politically immoral, and reprehensible from a humanitarian standpoint,” he insisted.

Furthermore, Hilale, recalling the historical misrepresentations, legal distortions, and denial of reality generated by Resolution 2797—as they have been circulated in recent weeks—made a point of correcting certain assertions and clarifying certain concepts.

Regarding the decolonization of the Sahara, the diplomat recalled that it “was definitively sealed half a century ago, with the return of the Sahara to its motherland, the Kingdom of Morocco, thanks to the Glorious Green March and the Madrid Agreement,” noting that Resolution 2797 reinforced this integration by enshrining autonomy within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.

Regarding the principle of self-determination, Hilale noted that United Nations doctrine in this area is not limited to Resolution 1514 alone, pointing out that its “numerous flaws and shortcomings” compelled Member States to supplement it with Resolution 1541, which codified the incompatibility of the principle of self-determination with any infringement upon the national unity and territorial integrity of countries, and Resolution 2625, which stipulates that “the acquisition of any other political status freely decided by a people constitutes for that people a way of exercising its right to self-determination.”

Regarding good faith, Ambassador Hilale emphasized that this is not an “empty slogan,” but “a sincere action, a political commitment, and a diplomatic ethic” that must be “reciprocal,” noting that Morocco’s presentation in Washington of its extensively detailed autonomy status “is the supreme act of the Kingdom’s good faith”.

On the issue of identifying the parties to the political process, Hilale emphasized that the four parties to this dispute have been “clearly identified in successive Security Council resolutions.” During the negotiations held in Washington and Madrid, it was, of course, “the four parties identified by the Security Council: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the ‘Polisario’, without any distinction or differentiation” who took part, he noted.

Ambassador Hilale also addressed the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was referred to several times during the Fourth Committee. In this regard, he recalled that the ICJ’s advisory opinion established two political and historical truths: 1) Morocco was present in its Sahara long before Spanish colonization; 2) the existence of ties of allegiance between the sultans of Morocco and the tribes of the Sahara.

As for the so-called “final colony in Africa,” Hilale noted that using this term when referring to the Moroccan Sahara discredits those that alleges this, emphasizing that “it was not the decolonization of the Sahara nor the ‘last colony in Africa’ that were negotiated in Washington and Madrid, but rather the status of autonomy within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty, to definitively resolve this regional dispute.”

Referring to the concept of representativeness, the Kingdom’s ambassador noted that the armed “Polisario” group’s self-proclamation as the representative of the populations in the Tindouf camps “is nothing less than a shameful usurpation of their political rights and a flagrant seizure of their political will.”

“The genuine representatives of the Moroccan Sahara are those who are democratically elected, as was the case in the legislative elections held on September 23,” he said, noting that since 1975, all elected officials in the region have been natives of the Sahara and its noble tribes.

Hilale also spoke out against statements raising the idea of a referendum, which, he insisted, “reflect an insidious denial of Security Council resolutions.” To these “forgetful” individuals, Hilale reminded them that “the Security Council has definitively buried any idea of a referendum for a quarter of a century,” as has the Fourth Committee, whose resolutions, adopted regularly for the past twenty years, make no reference to a referendum.

The optimism stemming from Resolution 2797 and the negotiations in Washington and Madrid “heralds a definitive settlement of the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara,” Hilale emphasized, noting that its true scope “will be even bigger: it embodies the ambition of a new regional epoch.”

This, Hilale noted, is the ambition expressed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in His Speech on October 31, in which the Sovereign reiterated His pledge “to continue working towards the revival of the Maghreb Union, based on mutual respect, cooperation and integration among the five member states of the Maghreb.”

He concluded by stating that this represents the vision of a southern Mediterranean region more focused on cooperation and partnerships, a secure Sahel, with improved access, integrated, and strengthened by trade; an Atlantic-African region that is more connected and open to the world; and a more stable, united Africa where efforts are focused on development and shared prosperity.