Updated

US and International Community Intensify Support for Morocco’s Compromise Autonomy Proposal for Western Sahara as Backing for Polisario Front Wanes

Washington, DC (April 5, 2011)— Following Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent reiteration of US support for Morocco’s “serious, realistic, and credible” compromise autonomy proposal to end the three-decades old Western Sahara conflict , two nations have officially withdrawn recognition of the Polisario-run phantom state “Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic” (SADR).

At a joint press conference on Saturday with Morocco’s Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri, Zambia’s Foreign Minister, Kabinga J. Pande announced that his country officially “withdrew its recognition of the SADR on March 29, 2011.” Zambia joins Papua New Guinea, which also withdrew its recognition of SADR in March and nearly 50 other nations that have done likewise in recent years.

Bi-partisan majorities of both the US House and Senate have also joined the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations in supporting Morocco’s compromise autonomy proposal to end the Western Sahara conflict.

In 2007, King Mohammed VI submitted the proposal to the United Nations in order to peacefully resolve a conflict from a “long-gone era” and to give a voice to thousands of Sahrawis being held in refugee camps by the Polisario Front in southern Algeria. According to Secretary Clinton, the plan is “a potential approach to satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.” The plan would also remove the largest obstacle to regional stability and cooperation in North Africa.

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The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org

This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

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