Hilal to the Algerian ambassador… The Kabyle people have been waiting for their destiny for 150 years.
Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilal, questioned his Algerian counterpart, Amar Benjamâa, about his presence in Caracas, even though he had received a mandate from the Arab League to defend his positions in New York. This is in response to the misleading allegations made by the Algerian ambassador to the United Nations regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue during a meeting of the Committee of 24.
Hilal said: “You talk about the Sahara as if you have no responsibility. Mr. Ambassador, I would like to ask you a question: the Arab League, which elected you to represent the Arab countries on the Security Council, would have preferred that you remained in New York to defend the Palestinian question. You arrived here only three days ago to talk about the Moroccan Sahara.”
He also confronted the Algerian ambassador over his country’s insistence regarding the Moroccan Sahara, stressing that the Committee of 24 discusses many issues but only addresses the Moroccan Sahara, without daring to talk about other problems.
In response to the Algerian ambassador’s allegation that his country is looking forward to the resolution of the Sahara issue, Hilal said: “We are here because Algeria refused to resume the third round tables in the framework of the political process. You talk about peace, but you refuse to take responsibility for the situation that has lasted for half a century.”
He continued by calling on his Algerian counterpart: “Your country is responsible for the stagnation of efforts to resolve this regional conflict.”
In response to the Algerian ambassador’s mention of a referendum and his selective insinuation on the right to self-determination, Mr. Hilal said: “You talked about the settlement plan and the referendum, but you omitted that the Security Council abandoned it a quarter of a century ago. Your diplomacy, Mr. Ambassador, suffers from dwarfism syndrome.”
He added: “This means that Algeria remained frozen in 1991 regarding the settlement plan. It has not evolved since. Your country has not kept up with developments in the world. You did not witness the fall of the Berlin Wall. You have not seen that 107 countries support the Moroccan autonomy initiative. You look away from the number of consulates open in the cities of Laâyoune and Dakhla, Morocco. Algeria has not realized that the Security Council has moved from the settlement plan to the political solution, which requires negotiations between all parties. And you have not taken note of the same decisions which urge you to resume the current talks with the same insistence on their refusal! After participating in the first two roundtable meetings, Algeria refused to participate in the third meeting, although the Security Council requested it.
Regarding the Algerian ambassador’s reference to an alleged occupation of the Moroccan Sahara and his selective insinuation of the right to self-determination, Mr. Hilal said: “There is a people in Algeria, the Kabyle people, who have been waiting for a referendum since more than 150 years, and you insist on terrorizing him, throwing him in prison and depriving him of his freedom and his most fundamental legitimate rights.
In the context of clarifying Algeria’s responsibility in the regional conflict around the Moroccan Sahara, Mr. Hilal continued his questioning of his Algerian counterpart: “Who is hindering the international political process? Algeria. Who shelters, arms, finances and carries out diplomacy for a separatist terrorist movement? Algeria. Who proposed to the anc
Did James Baker personally envoy to divide the Moroccan Sahara between the Kingdom and your terrorist separatist movement in 2002? It was Algeria through the voice of its former president, the late Abdelaziz Bouteflika.”
