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EU has "ambivalent" position towards Saharawi question

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ALGIERS, December 23, 2013 (SPS)  - The European Union (EU) adopted an"ambivalent" position towards the Saharawi question, depending on the economic interests of "some" of its members, President of the Union of Saharawi Jurists Aba Al-Salek Haissan said Saturday.

 

"We know that within the EU, there are influential countries that do everything to protect their economic interests to the detriment of the universal values of democracy and human rights," lamented Aba Salek El-Haissan, joined on telephone by Algerian Press Service (APS), in response to the recently renewed EU position with regard to the settlement of the Western Sahara conflict in accordance with UN resolutions.

 

Citing the case of France and Spain, whose economic interests with Morocco are "close", the president of the Union of Saharawi Jurists regrets that when it comes to economic issues in these countries, they try to "use their weight" within the EU in order to preserve them.

 

He recalled, in this regard, the recent fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco which includes the exploitation of fishery resources in the occupied territories of Western Sahara.

 

The number of voters for the agreement (300 yes, 209 no, 49 abstentions and 200 missing) shows the magnitude of the "differences" within the Union on this issue, said the representative of the Saharawi Jurists before recalling the decision of the Sahrawi authorities to bring an action before the European Court.

He added that if the EU has "clearly" reiterated its position on a "fair" political settlement of the Saharawi conflict in accordance with UN resolutions, it is because within its members there are some who are in favour of "the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination, citing as an example, the Nordic countries and Great Britain.

 

With regards to the "ambivalence" of France about the Saharawi conflict, President of the Union of Jurists referred to the Algerian-French joint statement, in which Paris had claimed to support a "fair" solution according to international legality.

 

"When the French president travels to Morocco, he has a quite different language," noted Haissan accusing the country of being an "obstacle" to a resolution on the Western Sahara conflict.

 

To recap, the EU reaffirmed on 16 December in Brussels at the end of the 11th session of the EU-Morocco Association, its commitment to the "settlement" of the conflict in Western Sahara. (SPS)

 

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