The 4th committee must part with Moroccan Sahara issue, says Omar Hilale

Maintaining the Moroccan Sahara issue on the agenda of the 4th Committee is in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and it is for this reason that this UN body must part with this issue, Morocco's permanent representative to the United Nations, ambassador Omar Hilale, said Tuesday in New York.

«The Moroccan Sahara is indeed the only issue that continues to be discussed and to be subject to a resolution by the 4th Committee, while the Security Council has been engaged with this issue since 1988», Ambassador Hilale pointed out in a statement before the 4th Committee of the United Nations General Assembly.

In this regard, the Moroccan diplomat deemed as «anachronistic» this double examination of the Moroccan Sahara issue, in the sense that it «violates Article 12 of the UN Charter which stipulates that while the Security Council is exercising in respect of any dispute or situation the functions assigned to it in the present Charter, the General Assembly shall not make any recommendation with regard to that dispute or situation unless the Security Council so requests».

«The objective of the founding fathers of our organization through this article is threefold: To prevent a situation where two UN bodies are dealing with the same issue, to avoid the adoption of contradictory decisions, as it is currently the case with the resolution of the 4th Committee on the Moroccan Sahara and that of the Security Council on the political process, to ensure the preponderance and preeminence of the Security Council, which is the source of international law and which remains the main UN body in charge of peacekeeping and international security», he added.

That is why, Ambassador Hilale said, Morocco will never cease calling on the 4th Committee to part with the Moroccan Sahara in order to ensure serenity and the appropriate atmosphere for the relaunch of the political process under the auspices of the Security Council.