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Thanks to the United Nations, Morocco is making its comeback to the international scene as an actor on the Libyan file. On Wednesday, July 8, the Kingdom was invited alongside thirty other countries to participate to a virtual meeting hosted by the UN Security Council on the Libyan crisis that has been tearing apart the country for years.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita attended the meeting on behalf of Morocco. It was an opportunity for the minister to reiterate the founding principles of the Moroccan approach to the solution regarding the war in Libya which «must be political and not military», he insisted. «This solution must come from the Libyans themselves, and must guarantee the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Libya», Bourita added.
As in his speech at the meeting of the Arab League on June 24 devoted to the same topic, Nasser Bourita acknowledged that «the Skhirat agreement is not perfect, but no valid alternative is on the table». «Its provisions must be adjusted and updated, by the Libyan brothers», he added.
Too many peace initiatives could have the opposite effect
The minister was also very reserved about «the proliferation of peace initiatives» which could «have the opposite effect». «There is a need to be realistic and pragmatic in dealing with the situation», he recommended. He referred to the Berlin conference of January 19, to which the Kingdom was not invited by Germany and to the plan of the Egyptian president declined on June 6 to save his ally Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Without forgetting the proposal of the Algerian president calling to leave the settlement of the problem only in the hands of «neighboring countries», namely: Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.
Taking a good distance from these political calculations, the minister wanted to explain the reasons behind the Kingdom's engagement in international efforts to silence arms in this Maghreb country. He thus stressed that «Libya is not only a neighbor of Morocco», affirming that it is a «brother country with which we share a common history, common ties, common interests and common destiny». «For us, Libya is not just a diplomatic issue. Our stability and security depend on the situation in Libya», he said.
In this regard, Nasser Bourita conveyed to the other participants Morocco's «concern» about the «deterioration» of the situation in Libya on the political, security, economic and humanitarian levels. «Libya is not a diplomatic business», he said, adding that «foreign interventions do not serve the interests of Libya and do not help the Libyan protagonists to transcend their particular interests to rise to the common interest of all Libyans».
