Morocco
FM Calls
Western Sahara
Talks
"Humanitarian,"
Cites Ban,
Syria
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
March 14 --
When Morocco's
Minister of
Foreign
Affairs
Saad-Eddine El
Othmani
emerged
Wednesday from
meeting with
UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, Inner
City Press
asked him
about the
negotiations
on Western
Sahara that
took place
March 11-13 at
the
Greentree
Estate in
Manhasset, New
York. Video here.
Saad-Eddine
El
Othmani
replied, in
French, that
the
negotiations
are
"concentrated
on
humanitarian
issues;" he
said that on
the
"political"
front there is
little
progress, and
blamed "the
other
parties."
He
said that the
UN in the past
two or three
years -- that
is, under Ban
Ki-moon --
has supported
Morocco's
"autonomy"
plan. This is
to be
contrasted
with the
referendum on
independence
that was the
purpose
of the UN
mission in
Western
Sahara.
In
the Security
Council during
the March 12
debate on the
Arab Spring,
South Africa's
Permanent
Representative
Baso Sangqu
brought up
Western
Sahara,
saying that
the Arab
Spring had
passed it by.
Inner City
Press asked
Saad-Eddine El
Othmani to
respond.
Perhaps it was
lost in
translation:
his response
was that
Morocco has
had its own
Arab
Spring,
stability,
human rights.
Then
in English
Saad-Eddine El
Othmani was
asked about
Syria. He said
that Syrians
"need
democracy...
and human
rights."
Morocco's
Permanent
Representative
Loulichki is
representing
the Arab
League's
position in
the Security
Council; it
seems that
Syria allowed
in Kofi Annan
as a UN envoy,
while the Arab
League
selected
deputy Nasser
Al Kidwa did
not go. More
on this soon.
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