London, Feb 18, 2012 (SPS) - The President of the European Coordination of Committees of Solidarity with the Saharawi people, Mr. Pierre Galand, declared the intention of the European Parliament to invite the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher Ross, in the near future to give thorough clarifications on the ongoing course of negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front under the UN auspices, reported Saturday the London based newspaper of Al-Quds.
In a speech issued in the Algerian El-Watan newspaper, Mr. Galand said that the EU Parliament “has taken this decision that might extend to invite the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who appears only before the U.S. Congress. Now, the time has come for him to present before the European Parliament on various issues, including Western Sahara,” stressing the need to consider the respect for human rights in Western Sahara.
He noted that if Christopher Ross appears before the European Union “it will be a real turning point in the conflict of Western Sahara and its relations to the European policy.”
“Frente Polisario has succeeded to put the Western Sahara question on the EU discussion table, after it had been only be up to France by virtue of its influence in the Arab Maghreb,” he pointed out.
It should be recalled that the EU Parliament, relying on a UN legal report recommending the absence of legality to fish off Western Sahara waters, voted last December 14 against the extension of the fishing agreement with Morocco, because it includes the territorial waters of Western Sahara, which is a subject of political dispute. (SPS)
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