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AU Executive Council rejects Moroccan attempt to pass two projects through Saharawi occupied territories towards West Africa

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Addis Ababa (African Union) 5 February 2021 (SPS)- The Executive Council of the African Union rejected, in its session Thursday, the attempt of the Kingdom of Morocco to pass two mega infrastructure projects through the occupied territories of the Saharawi Republic towards West African countries.
 
The council’s rejection of the two projects related to optical fibers and electrical network that the Moroccan occupying power wanted to pass from the occupied territories of the Saharawi Republic towards West Africa was a heavy blow to Morocco, as the Council refused to accept Rabat's expansionist ambitions, given that the African Union does not accept the violation of the borders of member states according to Article Fourth of his founding law.
 
During the discussion of the subject within the report of the Special Technical Committee on Transport, Infrastructure, Intercontinental and Interregional Infrastructure, Energy and Tourism (STC-TTIIET), the Saharawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, condemned the attempt of the Moroccan occupier to legalize its occupation through initiatives that Rabat's wants to put at the heart of the African agenda on economic integration. 
 
Ould Salek added that Morocco thinks that concealing its maneouvres behind money and economy may deceive an organization that makes the rejection of the acquisition of land by force and the respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states among its main principles and objectives .
 
Algeria, for its part, faced a similar conspiracy, as it was surprised by the presentation of two other projects that were planned to pass through its national soil without its knowledge or approval.
To face this attempt, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sabri Boukadoum, intervened in a firm way, stressing the rejection of this inapropriate attempt and affirming that this kind of desperate attempts will never succeed simply because they conflict with the Constitutive Act of the Union.
 
The decision of the Executive Council to return these four projects to the STC in order to consult the two concerned countries, the Saharawi Republic and Algeria, was a shock to Morocco, as it was a reminder to it that its presence in parts of the Saharawi national territory is nothing but an illegal military occupation, and that all its attempts to cross its internationally recognized borders will not pass through the organization.
 
It should be noted that the decision of the Executive Council on the infrastructure that spoiled the occupation regime’s plans to expand beyond its recognized borders comes only two months after the decision of the Extraordinary Summit on Silencing the Guns, which decided the referral of the search for a solution to the conflict between the two member states to the African Union Peace and Security Council, with a view to reach a new ceasefire based on the respect for the right of the Sahrawi people, the principles and objectives of the African Union and the relevant UN resolutions. (SPS) 
 
090/500/60 (SPS)