The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noel Barrot, has once again expressed this Friday to his Moroccan counterpart, Naser Burita, the “unwavering” support of the Government of France for the autonomy plan promoted by Rabat for Western Sahara.
During a meeting held in Essaouira, a coastal town in Morocco, Barrot has “recalled the unwavering position of France, according to which the present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.”
The head of French diplomacy, who has shown his “wish for dialogue to continue” regarding the dispute over Western Sahara, has at the same time stressed that the initiative put forward by Morocco in 2007 constitutes “the only basis for reaching a just, lasting and negotiated political solution.”
“France maintains its commitment to a definitive political solution to this issue,” Barrot said, in accordance with a statement from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which Paris’s support for Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy for Western Sahara, is also reaffirmed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Morocco has highlighted these words by Barrot in a note published on its website, after the meeting with Burita within the framework of the “exceptional enhanced partnership” signed two years ago by King Mohamed VI and the French President, Emmanuel Macron.
This position comes after the Polisario Front, representing the aspirations for self-determination of the Sahrawi people, declared on Tuesday a state of “general mobilization” against the “expansionist Moroccan occupier,” ten days after the mandate of the UN mission for Western Sahara (MINURSO) expired, following the failure of the draft texts promoted by the United States and Russia in the Security Council.