UN petitioners condemn De Mistura’s visit to South Africa

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Pro-Morocco petitioners to the UN 4th Committee condemn Staffan de Mistura’s January 31 visit to South Africa. In a statement, received by Yabiladi, they denounce “the impertinent, ill-advised and destabilizing attitude of the South African government to invite the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General” for Western Sahara.

“We reject the inexplicable attitude of Staffan de Mistura” and “the unilateral gesture of South Africa, which does not contribute to the objectives of stability and peace in strict compliance with international law, enshrined in the Charter of Nations united,” they indicate. And to recall that Pretoria “is in favor of the secessionist pretensions of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)”.

While reaffirming their “adherence to international legality and the principles of the UN Charter”, the signatories of the text reiterate their “unfailing support for the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative for the Sahara”, qualifying it as “the only credible, realistic and lasting solution” capable of resolving the regional dispute.

The authors of the statement urge the South African government to “correct its international conduct which is detrimental” to the UN-led political process. Among the signatories of the declaration are: Miguel A. Rodríguez Mackay, former Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ricardo Sanchez Serra, vice-president of the Federation of Journalists of Peru, and Moises Amselem El Baz, president of the Association Moroccan Jews in Mexico.

As a reminder, Morocco’s permanent representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, specified that the kingdom “will never allow South Africa to have any role in the Moroccan Sahara issue. Pretoria has been and remains toxic for the question of the Moroccan Sahara.

For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, affirmed that “South Africa is a marginal actor in the question of the Moroccan Sahara and will remain so. It has neither the influence nor the effectiveness necessary to change the situation. If she had the ability to change the situation, she would have done it twenty years ago.

The Polisario welcomed De Mistura’s visit to Pretoria, while the UN defended it.