In a speech delivered in the wilaya of Chahid el Hafed, the president affirmed that the Saharawi people are celebrating this Monday the establishment of their nationhood, after years of resistance, in spite of enormous difficulties and serious challenges, while continuing their battle for freedom and independence, with full respect for their legitimate rights.

The Secretary General of the Saharawi Front also reiterated that this organization, the only legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, will not participate in any process which does not respect the will of the people, nor the legal nature of the Saharawi issue.

In this regard, he called on the United Nations to expedite the empowerment of its mission in Western Sahara (Minurso), for the organization of the referendum of self-determination, as provided for in the 1991 African Nations Settlement Plan.

He further urged the African Union to ‘impose the respect of the principles and objectives of its Constitutive Law in order to put an end to the Moroccan military occupation’.

Gali criticized the position of Spanish President Pedro Sanchez, which, does not favor peace nor stability in the region, but rather encourages Morocco to deepen its policies of expansion and aggression towards all countries, including Spain itself, he said.

From the perspective of international law, Western Sahara remains a non-self-governing territory and Morocco exercises jurisdiction over it as an occupying power’, he stressed.

On February 26, 1976, Spain left the Sahara and on February 27, 1976, the Polisario Front proclaimed the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, recognized in November 1984 by the majority of countries of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), today the African Union of which it is a full member.

mh/jav/mem/ycv.