The Permanent Political Committee of the Sahrawi Peace Movement (SPM) underlined the position of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs pointing out the need for an urgent solution to the Saharawi conflict

El MSP destaca positivamente la voluntad del Gobierno español de impulsar una solución pacífica en el Sáhara Occidental

photo_camera PHOTO/REUTERS - Boudjdour refugee camp in Tindouf, southern Algeria

The Sahrawi Peace Movement (SPM) expressed its satisfaction for the intention of the Spanish government to promote a peaceful solution in Western Sahara. In his last visit to Washington, José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs met with Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, and both agreed to join efforts to solve the Saharawi conflict after decades of stalemate. 

Morocco lacks greater support from Spain in its proposal for a solution to the conflict based on broad autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, which has received significant international support, including from the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and the United Kingdom. 

All this in the face of the Polisario Front's initiative, which advocates holding a referendum on independence for the Sahrawi people. This has less support, including that of Algeria, the great rival of the Alaouite kingdom in the Maghreb. 

The statement of the Sahrawi Peace Movement (SPM) is reproduced below:

After evaluating the statements of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares following his recent visit to Washington and the meeting with his US counterpart on the need for an urgent solution to the problem of Western Sahara, the Permanent Political Committee of the Sahrawi Peace Movement (SPM) expressed its satisfaction with the position expressed by the head of Spanish diplomacy on the question of Western Sahara, which reflects a new willingness with a view to exercising the appropriate protagonism on the part of Spain in the solution of the problem of its former colony. 

The SPM considers that the new position expressed by Minister Albares, which it highly values, strengthens the hopes and true desires of the Saharawi people to turn the page of war and exile and, consequently, is in line with Spain's historical and moral responsibility in relation to a problem that has caused generations of Saharawis to suffer and has harmed the stability and integration of the Arab Maghreb. 

PHOTO/Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de España - Encuentro entre José Manuel Albares, ministro de Asuntos Exteriores español, y Antony Blinken, secretario de Estados norteamericano, en Washington

The SPM also considers that the decision to associate the United States in a common effort to promote a peaceful solution is a laudable move in the right direction and constitutes a remarkable encouragement to the mission just launched by the new personal envoy of the UN Secretary General, Staffan de Mistura. 

While expressing its willingness to encourage and contribute to any Spanish initiative aimed at providing an honourable and just way out to put an end to the suffering of the Saharawi people, the Permanent Political Committee of the SPM reiterates once again its support and cooperation with the efforts of the UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to enforce the ceasefire and resume the political process interrupted in Geneva in May 2019.

Finally, the Permanent Political Committee of the SPM calls on all Saharawis, wherever they are and whatever their political or ideological sensitivities, to take courage, in these serious and decisive circumstances, by joining en masse the project of peace and coexistence and the path of a just and honourable solution that the Movement is promoting in order to get out of the tunnel in which they have been trapped for half a century.

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