THE SERIOUS MISTAKE OF THE FRENCH PRESIDENT, MACRON

Emmanuel Macron, President of France, has made a very serious mistake, violating international law, by declaring in Rabat, together with King Mohammed VI, that Western Sahara belongs to Morocco, as previously stated by the former President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Until 1975, this territory was a Spanish colony, with the important detail that Spain was not the owner of it, but the administrator. In 1975, Spain DID NOT GIVE ownership of Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania; what it gave up was the administration, and warned the United Nations that this should end in a self-determination referendum.

That is to say, the fundamental basic principle is to know what the desire of the legitimate Sahrawi population is. To do this, the United Nations relied on an electoral census carried out by the Spanish authorities, which was the only reliable one. Morocco did not accept the census nor the referendum (it wanted to include Moroccans with no historical ties to the Sahrawi tribes in the census). Shortly afterwards, Morocco said “Western Sahara is mine, period”. Mauritania abandoned its part of the territory, and Morocco soon occupied it as well.

Thus, the Alawite kingdom violated and betrayed all UN resolutions on the former Spanish colony. The United Nations even created a mission to organize the referendum (MINURSO) that still exists.

Now, Macron is aligning himself with the illegality of the Moroccan occupation. Is this Macron’s “realpolitik” on Western Sahara? Macron has also abandoned Lebanon and allowed Israel to bomb it and turn it into ruins, when historically Paris has always been on Beirut’s side.

These are two examples of what a democratic leader should never have done. That is to say; legitimate Sahrawis are being allowed to be told: “You are Moroccans” without asking their opinion. The ancient tribes of Western Sahara paid homage to the Sultan, but they never recognized his authority.

France certainly has many interests in Morocco, but these cannot prevail because of ignorance of history, international law, the decisions of the International Court of Justice, and double standards. The inhabitants of Western Sahara have never felt themselves to be subjects of Morocco. France and Morocco want to force them into a gesture that imitates the worst of dictatorships.