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Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry Rejects Hamid Chabat’s Claims on Mauritania
The Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry has totally rejected the statements made by the Istiqlal Party’s Secretary General concerning Mauritania’s territorial integrity, according to a statement issued by the Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
A communiqué released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry states that “the foreign affairs ministry flatly rejects these statements which undermine relations with a brotherly neighboring country and show a real ignorance of the Moroccan diplomacy’s orientations, laid by the King, and which advocate good neighborliness, solidarity and cooperation with the sister nation of Mauritania.”
Istiqlal Secretary General Hamid Chabat raised controversy this week when he called Mauritania “a Moroccan territory” and said that “Morocco’s borders extend from Sebta in the north to the Senegal river in the south.”
In response, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Morocco insisted on officially declaring “its full respect for the known and recognized borders, under the international law, of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and its territorial integrity” in the communiqué published earlier today.
“[Morocco] is confident that the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, its president, government and people, will give no importance to this kind of statements which are prejudicial only to the person making them,” the statement added.
The statement concludes that such reckless remarks play into the logic of the adversaries of Morocco’s territorial integrity who are fighting to prevent its legitimate return to its African institutional family.
Earlier this month, tensions between Rabat and Nouakchott grew as the Polisario was granted access to Lagouira. On December 8, it was reported that Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali was allowed to enter the Lagouira territory and take pictures in the Guerguerat zone.
Many believe Hamid Chabat’s statements certainly do not help to further improve bilateral relations, especially as Morocco currently bids for re-entry into the African Union
Moroccan public opinion has expressed through thousands tweets of on its disappointments and distresses of Chabat’s inaccurate statements
Later in the evening, the Head of Government Abdelilah Benkirane would fly to Nouakchott this Tuesday as envoy of King Mohammed VI to the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
