The speaker during a parliamentary session in the House of Commons, British Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski argued for UK recognition of the Moroccan nature of the Sahara, revealing in the same vein as his country’s ambassador to Morocco, Simon Martin, “opposed this recognition“.
“During our visit to Morocco we had a very unsatisfactory telephone conversation with the British ambassador. As on many other occasions, the British ambassador tried to indicate that we could not recognize Western Sahara because that would in one way or another interfere with our relations with our overseas territories, particularly the Falkland Islands“, He said. When he insisted to the ambassador to explain the justification of this parallel, “no satisfactory answer was received“, he noted.
The British MP believes that there is a need for the United Kingdom to recognize the Moroccan Sahara and to follow the example of the USA and several Western countries in this matter, accusing his country’s ambassador in Rabat of blocking this recognition. pic.twitter.com/1uuUweOLF7
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Daniel Kawczynski, who has visited the Moroccan Sahara on several occasions, subsequently requested clarification from the British Foreign Secretary on this matter. “Is it the fact that we cannot recognize Western Sahara as Moroccan due to legal, constitutional or technical difficulties that could affect our relations with our overseas territories? I do not think so“, he insisted, before starting to argue: “France, which is in the process of recognizing the Moroccan Sahara, also has overseas territories“.
“I would be grateful if the Minister could explain this point. We must recognize that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, as Israel and the United States have done. At the very least, we should follow the example of Spain, a former colonial power, as well as Germany and France, in recognizing that the autonomy plan is the only way forward“, he recommended.
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Taking up the analysis made in this sense by Professor Marc Weller, holder of the chair of international law and international constitutional studies at Cambridge, the British representative explained that “Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, and even recognition of the autonomy proposal, would actually strengthen our relations with our overseas territories and the Falkland Islands.“.
“Professor Marc Weller says the opposite of what we hear from our own ambassador to Morocco. During my visit to Western Sahara, we met with representatives of 30 countries that opened consulates in Dakhla, and more than 90 countries of the world recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.“, he concluded.