Norway summons Moroccan diplomat over Sahara incident

 

Oslo, 27. January (EFE).

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs today summoned the chargé d'affaires at the Moroccan embassy, Abdelhakim El Amrani, after Morocco had prohibited the entry to Western Sahara by a Nordic diplomatic delegation. This was confirmed to EFE by diplomatic sources.

 

Morocco blocked access to El Aaiun, in Western Sahara, to a delegation of diplomats from the embassies of Norway , Sweden and Finland in Rabat last Tuesday, according to information provided to EFE by the president of the Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara, Ronny Hansen.

 

" The delegation had finalized all their preparations and had a green light from Rabat but on Monday evening they called [the embassies] to prohibit the visit", he said.

 

The diplomats were planning to meet a group of Sahrawi Human Rights activists, the UN Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) and various Moroccan authorities.

 

"It's correct that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has had a meeting with the Moroccan chargé d'affaires – the ambassador Bouaachab Yahdih has not been appointed yet – in relation to a planned visit to Western Sahara by diplomats from Sweden, Finland and Norway", said Rune Bjastad, spokesman for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 

Bjastad said that the chargé d'affaires explained "why the Moroccan authorities had considered the visit as inappropriate" and that Norway had demanded that " Morocco modify its decision in this case in order to allow the visit to go ahead"

 

Similarly, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs also summoned the Moroccan ambassador to Helsinki today in order to hear his version of the facts and to present him with a "strong protest". Sweden will convene the representative from Rabat next week, said Hansen.

 

It's the second time that Morocco thwarts a visit by Nordic diplomats to Western Sahara since last November.

 

Diplomatic sources revealed that the Moroccan deputy minister of foreign affairs, Tayeb Fassi Fihri, at the time gave a guarantee to the Swedish minister of foreign affairs, Laila Freivalds, that it had all been a great misunderstanding and that it wouldn't happen again. Freivalds has to the Swedish parliament described the Moroccan attitude as "unfortunate" and lamented Morocco's "lack of openness and its unwillingness" to allow contacts with civil society.

 

The minister emphasized that Sweden will demand that the European Union examine the Human Rights situation in Western Sahara and confirmed that she will discuss the matter with her Moroccan colleagues.