Moroccan

The Minister of Foreign Affairs was addressing the media during a press briefing held with his Belgian counterpart, Hadja Lahbib, on a working visit to Morocco where she expressed her country’s support for the autonomy plan as “a basis for a solution accepted by the parties.

Referring to the welcome given to the leader of the Polisario in South Africa, Nasser Bourita calmly explained the hostility of this country towards Morocco. “What we have seen in the past two days in Pretoria is none other than spectacle and cinema which brings four remarks. The first being that this is not the first time that this country has taken negative and radical positions against the Kingdom of Morocco since 2005”.

Secondly, according to him, these positions reflect “a deficit, an incapacity and not a power”, because “South Africa, when it recognized in 2005 the chimerical entity by supporting an armed militia, estimated that the file would change and that Africa and the world would follow her”.

The reality was different, bringing stinging failures. Nasser Bourita thus demonstrated that “Since 2005, 20 countries have withdrawn their recognition (of the SADR, editor’s note), including 10 in Africa, including 7 in the neighborhood of South Africa”.

However, this country sat on the UN Security Council in 2007, 2011 and 2019 as a non-permanent member, “without being able to change anything”. For the Minister of Foreign Affairs, South Africa notes “today that half of the countries of the continent, that is to say 23 countries, including those of its neighborhood, have opened consulates in the Southern Provinces “.

Cyril Ramaphosa’s old scratched record on the Sahara affair

And to add that “Pretoria also notes that 90 countries in the world support the autonomy plan presented in 2007 by Morocco”. On this list, he observed, are 30 African countries. And Nasser Bourita’s indictment was not over since he recalled that Pretoria also noted “that Morocco has resumed its place within the African Union (AU); that Morocco is chairing the African Peace and Security Council and that the AU is increasingly taking fruitful positions with regard to the national cause”.

This whole spectacle of Pretoria “demonstrates a weakness of South Africa with regard to Morocco’s firm position on its territorial integrity”. Nasser Bourita hit the nail on the head by saying that “holding up a tea towel or laying out a red carpet does not in any way modify the file, on the contrary it expresses an inability to produce an impact on the file”. “South Africa is therefore positioned in the wrong part of history”.

The process to be followed in this matter, advised the minister to South Africa, “is the approach and the way forward to find a solution within the framework of the United Nations, a solution that is built on the international legitimacy, a solution that distinguishes between a state and a militia and between a rag and a flag. It is this attitude which will lead us to recognize a credible State”.

And to emphasize that “Morocco will continue to behave towards this kind of carnivals by seeking to isolate South Africa”. “This country must understand that, if in 2005 the number of countries that withdrew recognition (from the militia) was 27 states, today the total is 37 and this will increase”. Morocco, assured the minister, will “act to isolate the logic of Pretoria which is hostile to international legitimacy, hostile to the solution and hostile to the efforts of the UN”.

At the same time, according to him, Morocco will continue to “defend its interests and use all the mechanisms at its disposal because this behavior undermines bilateral relations”.

Nasser Bourita also issued a warning: “we will not allow South African companies to make money in Morocco by remaining passive with regard to the behavior of their government against the Kingdom”. And to recall that the orientations of King Mohammed VI, contained in his speech of August 20, 2022, constitute “glasses for Morocco”, that is to say that Morocco cannot build a bilateral economic partnership with any country without priority respect for the Moroccanness of its Sahara.

“Morocco was not surprised by what just happened in Pretoria. He is used to it, because these attitudes have no influence, neither on the Moroccan file, nor on its process, nor on its positive development”.

In conclusion, the Minister welcomed the position of Belgium which has just given its support to the autonomy plan. “South Africa’s unrest does not scare us,” he concluded.