The Polisario hopes that Feijóo will reverse Sánchez's turn on the Sahara and translate his rejection into "facts"

He hopes that the government resulting from 23J will back down and return to the traditional position of support for the UN framework

MADRID, 25 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The representative of the Polisario Front in Spain, Abdulá Arabi, has trusted that the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will translate "into facts" the rejection expressed to the decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara and reverse this twist in Spanish foreign policy of being the new president after the July 23 elections.

In an interview with Europa Press, Arabi once again criticized Sánchez's "unilateral" decision to lean "for the option proposed by Morocco", an autonomy for the Sahara that the President of the Government described as "the most solid, credible and realistic" to solve the conflict in the letter that he sent in March 2022 to Mohamed VI.

The representative of the Polisario has indicated that they have "dialogue" with all the political parties, including the PP, whose congress in 2022 in Seville, in which Feiejóo was elected as leader, they attended. In the meetings held with the 'popular', his public statements and the parliamentary initiatives that they have supported both in Congress and in the Senate "have expressed their disagreement with this turn of the President of the Government", he recalled.

Thus, these "words" Arabi has maintained, should be translated into "deeds", that is, backtrack, given that the PP has shown its "dissatisfaction with a decision that it considers not in accordance with Spain's traditional position, that distances itself from International Law and therefore leaves the framework of the United Nations". "Therefore, the possible government of the PP would have to keep these issues in mind," she pointed out.

As regards the relationship with the PSOE, he has recognized that there are still no political relations, nor are there any with the Government, as a result of Sánchez's turn. "As a condition we have asked that this decision be reversed and that it return to the path of International Law, until now that has not happened and we continue the same," he stressed.

However, he has clarified that they continue "trying to maintain a certain dialogue with the hope that the PSOE has to change its position and return to the resolutions of its last congress that clearly speaks of the defense of the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and the defense of the United Nations framework as the best solution for Western Sahara".

Thus, Arabi has not wanted to show interest in the victory of any party at the polls. "Beyond assessing who we like or who we do not like to govern, what we are always going to request is that the Government on duty knows that Spain is the administering power of the territory of Western Sahara and as such has a responsibility and obligations that it has to comply", he maintained.

In the five decades that have elapsed, he has had an impact, the Polisario has known "governments of different political persuasions" in Spain and until last year "the position has always been to try to place the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict within the framework of the United Nations" .

However, he has insisted that the Executive that leaves the polls "the first thing it has to do is reverse this turn that contradicts" the traditional position of Spain as an administering power and think that in North Africa, "there are more countries" , there is not only Morocco, but also Algeria and Western Sahara.

The Polisario will always be "demanding with any government so that it fulfills its responsibilities and its obligations" in regard to the former colony and "from that it has to reconcile its interests with Morocco."

"We are not opposed to good neighborliness and good relations between Spain and Morocco, but we have verified, and time has shown, that Morocco always conditions this good neighborliness to the detriment of the legitimate rights of the Saharawi people", he lamented. .

On the other hand, he has not ruled out that Rabat may try to interfere in some way in the 23J elections, referring to the last municipal and regional elections in which "there has been much talk about the possibility of external interference by Morocco", in an apparent allusion to the case of the theft of votes by mail in which the Coalition for Melilla (CPM), a party considered close to the neighboring country, would be involved.

"He will always try, because he always wants there to be a government similar to his expansionist claims in Western Sahara and, above all, someone who is benevolent with his blackmail and manipulations," he assessed.

In another order of things, regarding the expiration on July 17 of the fishing agreement between the EU and Morocco, pending a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) a priori before the end of the year, Arabi has insisted that this agreement cannot include "the natural resources of Western Sahara".

In this sense, he has recognized that in practice this means that the Spanish vessels that fished in those waters will have to leave after that date, but he has expressed the Polisario's willingness to negotiate.

"We have always expressed our predisposition to guarantee a legal framework for all Spanish fishermen if they wish, but they have to sit down and negotiate with the representative of the Saharawi people, which is the Polisario Front," he pointed out.

Arabi has been convinced that the CJEU will reaffirm the previous ruling of the General Court of the EU that clearly and clearly stated that "the territories of Western Sahara and Morocco are distinct and separate territories" and therefore Rabat cannot reach any agreement on the natural resources of the former Spanish colony without the consent of the Sahrawis.

In this sense, the Saharawi representative has encouraged "any state, company, entity, fishermen's association that wants to start looking for a legal framework for its work in the jurisdictional waters of Western Sahara to contact the Polisario Front" .