Speaking at a session of the 4th Committee of the UN General Assembly, Morocco's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Omar Hilale, slammed Algeria's ambassador, Amar Benjama, for his repeated fixation on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara. Mr. Hilale described this obsession as a "schizophrenic pathology", adding that Algeria is stuck in a logic of permanent conflict.
Responding to the attacks of his Algerian counterpart, Mr. Hilale denounced Algeria's double talk: "On the one hand, it claims to be neutral, claiming that it is not a party, but on the other hand, it gives lessons and challenges our committee without ever addressing the Security Council," said the Moroccan ambassador. He noted the "weird" attitude of Algiers that seems to avoid discussions at the Security Council, which remains responsible for decisions on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.
"The Security Council is the body that upholds international law and negotiates the political solution. But Algeria prefers to ignore this body, just as it ignores the interventions that have resonated in our Committee over the past ten days," the diplomat said, regretting that the Algerian ambassador likes "the show".
The Moroccan ambassador did not hesitate to dismantle the Algerian argument on the so-called existence of a "Sahrawi people". "What people? There are no Sahrawi people. There are Sahrawi populations, some of whom are locked up in the Tindouf camps, controlled by the +polisario+ militias and the Algerian army," he said ironically.
Mr. Hilale then challenged his Algerian counterpart to clarify the term "people," a definition that even the African Union Human Rights Commission has failed to clearly determine.
Regarding the issue of self-determination raised by Benjama, the Moroccan diplomat retorted: "The Algerian ambassador is so obsessed with Morocco that he ignores the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, which provides for popular consultation at the end of the negotiations," adding that "this initiative, which backed by the Security Council, is for Morocco the only way towards a consensual, sustainable, pragmatic political solution based on compromise, as recommended by this Council."
In this regard, he underlined that "it is only thanks to the round tables and the commitment of the four parties that this region will be able to find peace and stability. In the meantime, Morocco resolutely continues its path of development of the Moroccan Sahara region and lets Algeria bark", Mr. Hilale concluded.
