Fisheries agreement : Diplomats from the EU Delegation in Rabat met with Mahjoub Salek

Amost two weeks after the Court of Justice of the European Union issued its ruling regarding the fisheries agreement concluded with Morocco, European Union ended up consulting other Sahrawis on the treaty. Thursday in Rabat, three members of the EU delegation in the Kingdom, including its political representative, met with the founder of Khat Achahid (the Martyr’s Line). The latter is an organization that opposes the Polisario’s leadership.

«Our discussion was long, frank and fruitful. It mainly focused on the party entitled to profit from the economic benefits of the fisheries agreement», Mahjoub Salek told Yabiladi on Thursday.

Salek defended in front of the European diplomats «the right of the genuine Sahrawi people duly recognized by the United Nations through maps provided by the MINURSO» to take advantage of the financial compensations granted by the EU in exchange of the right to fish in the Western Sahara waters, he said.

«The Polisario leadership does not represent Sahrawis»

The founding member of the separatist movement in 1973 seized the opportunity to assert that «the Polisario leadership does not represent Sahrawis».

In fact, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in its two previous rulings in 2016 and 2018 did not recognize the fact that the Front represents Sahrawis.

For the record, at the Lisbon meeting on the 6th of March held with Horst Köhler, presidents of Laayoune-Saguia Al Hamra and Boujdour-Oued Eddahab regions were part of the Moroccan delegation headed by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.

In his meeting, Mahjoub Salek warned the EU against the idea of negotiating with the Polisario leadership. «The Front will divert the money generated from the agreements, as it has already done with international humanitarian aids», he explained to Yabiladi.

At the end of his meeting with the three diplomats of the EU Delegation in Rabat, Mahjoub Salek asked to grant Khat Achahid the right to submit proposals regarding the conflict to the European Parliament and the European Commission.