Interview with the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs

In an interview granted on Sunday, October 2nd, to the international channel AL24 NEWS, the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Attaf, was keen to specify that in the final UN Security Council Resolution 2797, regarding the question of Western Sahara, "the fundamentals of the Sahrawi question remain preserved."

In this regard, he explained that "the right to self-determination (of the Sahrawi people) has been decoupled from the autonomy plan and must be exercised in conformity with international legality and the Charter of the United Nations."

He also emphasized that "the principle that Morocco desperately tried to include, that of its alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara, was withdrawn and expunged from the two references made to this principle in the operative part of the draft resolution. This reference remained in the preamble with less legal force."

Therefore, he maintained, "in the operative part of the resolution, there is absolutely no reference to either the Moroccan State or Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara," and "the autonomy plan is no longer the exclusive framework for resolving the Sahrawi question."

"The resolution has opened the field to other ideas and other alternatives," he also said on the matter.

Arguing about Algeria's non-participation in the Friday vote on the Security Council resolution, Mr. Attaf affirmed that "Algeria was on the verge of voting in favor of the resolution." But, he explained, there was "that small provision relating to 'Moroccan sovereignty' at the preamble level. We asked, on the eve of the vote, for that provision to be removed, and we would vote for the text, but it was not."

Mr. Attaf also stressed that "Algeria attaches great importance to ensuring that this entire process led by the United Nations regarding the completion of the decolonization of Western Sahara is strictly compliant with United Nations resolutions."

In this context, the minister recalled that "there are 17 non-self-governing territories on the United Nations agenda. All these 17 territories are eligible and without any controversy for the exercise of the right to self-determination."

"Why should there be a Sahrawi exceptionalism !?" he questioned before specifying that "the right to self-determination is a pillar of the United Nations Charter and it is also a pillar of Algerian diplomacy," recalling that "it was the Algerian question at the United Nations that was at the origin of Resolution 1514 which organizes the entire mechanism for the exercise of the right to self-determination."

Please find throught the following link the whole interview :

AL24 وزير الدولة، وزير الشؤون الخارجية، السيّد أحمد عطاف في مقابلة تلفزيونية مع قناة