Algiers, April 12, 2014 (SPS) - Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo y Marfil, declared Saturday in Algiers that Western Sahara issue is a question of decolonization which must be handled in the framework of the United Nations.
"Spain’s position on the problem of Western Sahara is known. For us it is a question of decolonization which must be settled in the framework of the United Nations and through negotiations between the two parties (Morocco and the Polisario Front)," the minister said on the sidelines of the Algerian-Spanish economic forum.
According to the Spanish official, Western Sahara conflict "must be solved through negotiations between the two parties, and in accordance with the UN resolutions, to identify a formula that provides self-determination to the Saharawi people.”
Furthermore, he said that his country is waiting to know the content of the report of UN secretary general, on the basis of personal envoy Christopher Ross, to express position about the extending of the mandate of UN Mission for Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) to human rights protection in the Sahrawi territories.
Registered since 1963 on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, thus eligible for the application of Resolution 1514 of the UN General Assembly containing a Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, Western Sahara is Africa’s last colony which has been occupied since 1975 by Morocco with the support of France. (SPS)
062/700