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Morocco's permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, delivered a forceful response on Wednesday, October 15, to remarks made by an Algerian diplomat during the UN's Fourth Committee session. The diplomat had criticized Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara as «deceptive» and claimed it «had never been presented».
Omar Hilale fired back with a pointed question: «If this plan is deceptive, then why do 120 UN member countries support it as the only realistic solution to this issue?» The Moroccan representative highlighted that this backing for the Moroccan initiative has been consistently voiced within the UN's Fourth Committee, «by representatives of states and petitioners.»
In his right of reply, Hilale also urged the Algerian government to cease its financial support for the Polisario, criticizing it as a misallocation of resources that undermines the Algerian people's welfare. «These billions of dollars spent on arming a terrorist group and destabilizing the region would have been better used to stock supermarkets and stores, and above all, to feed the Algerian population. It's regrettable to have to say it this way», he asserted. Algiers remains silent on the annual budget allocated to the Polisario's operations.
This verbal clash unfolds against a backdrop of escalating diplomatic tensions between Rabat and Algiers, further inflamed by recent declarations from President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. He stated last week before a gathering of generals that he «will never abandon Western Sahara. And as long as I am their neighbor, I will not let anyone impose solutions on the Sahrawis that they do not accept».
