HIBAPRESS
The statements of Sidi Hamdi Ould Errachid, the president of the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region, regarding the boundaries of the autonomy project, sparked widespread controversy in the southern regions, after he confirmed in a television interview that the Guelmim-Oued Noun region is not within the territorial scope of the dispute, which he defined between Tarfaya and La Guera according to the UN framework, stressing that the integration of the region with the rest of the southern regions is "not currently on the table."
These statements were met with strong rejection from parliamentarians of the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, who considered them an attempt to diminish the role of the region and separate it from its historical and political extension.
A number of parliamentarians, along with a number of researchers, professors, and journalists, hastened to respond to the statements of Ould Errachid, confirming that the region is not subject to exclusion or narrow interpretations.
The parliamentarian and head of the Assa-Zag council, Mahmoud Aba, considered in a post that the autonomy "is a strategic and sovereign workshop with a unified vision, whose features were set by King Mohammed VI," stressing that it cannot be turned into a subject of "personal endeavors or impromptu statements." He added that the initiative is not to redraw administrative maps, but a final political formula to end a fabricated conflict.
Aba pointed out that a large number of Moroccans in the Tindouf camps are tribally descended from the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, and that narrow readings may lead to their exclusion or the imposition of their settlement in another region, which contradicts the philosophy of voluntary integration and the honorable return offered by the Kingdom.
He concluded by confirming that any discourse that divides the southern regions or weakens their territorial cohesion "is not successful and lacks political maturity," especially in a circumstance in which Morocco is achieving increasing gains on the international level.
