confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Morocco makes its move
Blue Lines
'C'est un grand jour pour le Maroc,'
Rabat's Foreign Minister Salaheddine
Mezouar told journalists in Addis Ababa after his country was
readmitted to the African Union on 31 January. He was speaking just
minutes after Morocco's King Mohammed
VI had made his inaugural address to the African Union summit as
the head of a member state.
Mohammed VI's 20-minute speech was placatory, with only one reference
to the dispute over the claims to Western Sahara which had prompted his
country to quit the AU's predecessor, the Organisation for African
Unity. 'We don't want to divide the continent,' he insisted. Although
Morocco had won the support of 40 member states for its readmission,
there was no discussion of the implications.
Mohamed Salem Ould Salek,
Foreign Minister of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which has
been locked in dispute with Morocco for four decades, called Rabat's
return a 'positive step'. He believes Morocco's AU membership will
compel it to recognise the SADR as an accredited nation state. So far
there has been no regional thaw over the core issue: the territory's
status. Algeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe still strongly back the
SADR and say they will oppose any move by Morocco to downgrade its
status. That could push the issue back to the United Nations, where a
stalemate between Morocco and the SADR has reigned since 1991. UN
Secretary General António Guterres
could be the man to break the log jam.
