The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, who is on a working visit to Rabat, stresses the importance of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco, explaining that his country supports the efforts of the United Nations to settle the conflict in the Moroccan Sahara.
Today, Monday, Ukraine joined the list of countries supporting the autonomy proposal in the Sahara, which Morocco put forward in 2007 as a solution to the conflict with the Algerian-backed separatist Polisario Front. In recent years, it has gained great traction with successive regional and international recognitions of the Moroccanness of the Sahara.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is on a working visit to Rabat, said at a joint press conference with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, that his country supports the autonomy scheme proposed by the Kingdom to resolve the conflict in the Moroccan Sahara, which dates back to 1976, making it the oldest conflict in Africa.
Morocco proposed a plan whereby the Sahrawi region would obtain autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, which the Polisario Front and Algeria, its sponsor, rejected.
First-ever bilateral visit to Morocco at the start of my second Africa tour. FM Nasser Bourita and I focused on the Peace Formula, new economic opportunities, trade and visa liberalization. We have always welcomed Moroccan students and hope to welcome more of them in the future. pic.twitter.com/Xxj41gwgWY
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 22, 2023
Bourita and Kouliba announced that they agreed to continue coordination in the field of security and organized crime, as well as the economic aspect, especially “strengthening the agricultural field,” explaining that they discussed in Rabat ways to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, especially in the security and economic fields.
Bourita reaffirmed that “Morocco is not a party to the Russian-Ukrainian war, in one way or another, but Morocco is concerned with it as it affects regional and international security and stability and its economic consequences,” stressing that Morocco has “good relations with Russia and Ukraine and welcomes all initiatives to find a solution.” peaceful” ends the current war.
Kuleba expressed his country’s commitment to supporting and securing food security in countries of the world, including Morocco, stressing Kiev’s aspiration to strengthen cooperation with the Kingdom of Morocco in various fields.
Kuleba thanked Morocco for its position on the Russian aggression, praising Rabat’s vote in favor of United Nations resolutions regarding the Russian war on Ukraine.
In another matter, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister expressed his country’s aspiration to attract many Moroccan students to study, stressing that the Ukrainian government is working for the return of Moroccan students who were interrupted by the war to resume their studies in Ukrainian university institutions.
At the press conference in the capital, Rabat, the Moroccan minister, whose country resumed diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 after many years of freezing them, denounced the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security Ibtamar Ben Gvir’s storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard, describing what happened as “repeated provocative actions.”
“The Kingdom of Morocco strongly condemns a new incursion into the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque by a member of the Israeli government,” he said, stressing that Morocco “calls for the immediate cessation of all these measures that affect the legal and historical status of the Holy City.”
“We hope that these provocations will stop because their impact is negative and because they only fuel extremism and violence in the region,” he added. Al-Aqsa Mosque is the first of the two qiblas and the third of the Two Holy Mosques. The Jews say that it is the site of the “Temple Mount” and consider it their holiest religious place.
The mosque is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Israeli forces control the entrances to the site, which is administered by the Islamic Endowments Department of Jordan.
Rabat regularly affirms its commitment to the Palestinian cause, which still enjoys popular support in the Kingdom, despite the decline in response to pro-Palestinian militant activities. It supports the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
