LAAYOUNE: The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday became the first Arab country to open a diplomatic mission in the Moroccan-controlled area of the disputed Western Sahara.
The inauguration of the consulate general in the northern coastal city of Laayoune brings to 16 the number of missions opened in the region since late last year.
The UAE move “reinforces a dynamic of recognition of the ‘Moroccan identity’” of Western Sahara, with “increasing support from the international community,” Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told AFP on Wednesday after the opening.
Western Sahara, a vast swathe of desert on Africa’s Atlantic coast, is a disputed former Spanish colony.
Rabat controls 80 percent of the territory, including its phosphate deposits and its fishing waters.
The Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which fought a war for independence from 1975 to 1991, demands a referendum on self-determination.
Morocco, which maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, has offered autonomy but insists it will retain sovereignty.
Since late 2019, 15 African countries have opened diplomatic missions in the former colonial capital Laayoune and in the fishing port of Dakhla, further south.
“It’s not an insignificant act, it’s an act that has political, legal and diplomatic meaning,” Bourita said of the UAE move.
Negotiations involving Morocco, the Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania have been suspended for several months.
UAE opens consulate in Morocco-controlled Western Sahara
https://arab.news/j86xf
UAE opens consulate in Morocco-controlled Western Sahara
- Western Sahara, a vast swathe of desert on Africa’s Atlantic coast, is a disputed former Spanish colony
- Negotiations involving Morocco, the Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania have been suspended for several months
Syria says detained senior Daesh jihadist in Damascus
- The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Daesh group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.
Taha Al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an Daesh leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad Al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.
The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone Daesh gunman in central Syria’s Palmyra.
“Our specialized units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting” an Daesh hideout, Dalati said.
On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five Daesh members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.
It was the first such incident since the overthrow of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December last year, and Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a security forces member who was due to be fired for his “extremist Islamist ideas.”
