Austria supports Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in new Moroccan diplomatic victory
Morocco has achieved a new diplomatic victory with regard to the expansion of Western support for the Moroccanity of the Sahara, after Austria joined on Tuesday the list of countries supporting the autonomy proposal in the Sahara under the sovereignty of the Kingdom, an initiative that is gaining more momentum day by day under a realistic diplomacy led by Rabat.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Tuesday that his country considers the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco since 2007 to solve the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara as a “serious and credible contribution.”
Karl Nehammer, who is on an official visit to Morocco on 27 and 28 February, added that his country supports the efforts of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura “to continue the political process aimed at achieving a just, lasting, political and mutually acceptable solution in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions and the goals and principles set out in the UN Charter.”
Austria joined a growing number of European, Arab and African countries in expressing support for Morocco’s “autonomy” proposal in 2007 to grant the Sahara region autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, but the Polisario Front and its ally Algeria are wedded to the option of total separation from Morocco.
The dispute over the Sahara is considered one of the oldest conflicts in Africa, as Morocco regained its sovereignty over its territory in the southern provinces of the Kingdom from the Spanish colonization in 1975, and the Polisario Front was established a year later and took up arms to secede.
“The armed conflict between the two sides continued until the UN intervened in 1991 in a ceasefire repeatedly violated by the POLISARIO, which was finally dissolved after Moroccan forces intervened in November 2020 to open the Guerguerat crossing into Mauritania and further afield, which had been closed by Polisario gangs for a while.”
The joint declaration was issued following Tuesday’s meeting between Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
In the joint declaration, the two sides affirmed their support for the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General Staffan de Mistura and his efforts to continue the political process aimed at achieving “a just, lasting, political and mutually acceptable solution,” in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions and the goals and principles set forth in the UN Charter.
Austria’s support for the autonomy initiative is the latest episode in a series of international recognition of the Moroccanity of the Sahara and of Morocco’s pragmatism and credibility, which has so far succeeded in dismantling the support belts in which the Polisario Front had been entrenched under the cover of Algeria, which is promoting what it calls the right of self-determination for the illegal entity called the Sahrawi Republic.
The United States, Spain and several EU countries have recognized the realism of the autonomy proposal as the only logical solution to the dispute over the Sahara, while the French position remains ambiguous, which affects the Moroccan-French strategic relations.
Other countries are expected to end their reluctance to recognize the Moroccanity of the Sahara, while Morocco is leading efforts on more than one front to consolidate diplomatic gains on this issue, which is considered an uncompromising national constant.
Moroccan King Mohammed VI established an indisputable principle in the control of his country’s foreign relations by declaring that the West regards relations with any country through the Moroccan-Sahara lens.
Rabat praised on Tuesday Austria’s willingness to continue its valuable support to the MINURSO mission, as Carl Niehamer concludes his official visit to the Kingdom, which arrived on Monday at the head of a high-level delegation at the invitation of Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, confirming the launch of a new phase of cooperation between Rabat and Vienna.
The Austrian Chancellor’s visit to Rabat was part of the celebration of the 240th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
