Morocco accuses European Parliament delegation that attempted to enter Western Sahara of provocation

Moroccan Foreign Minister Naser Burita has described as a provocation an attempt by a European Parliament (EP) delegation to enter Aaiun, the capital of Western Sahara.

These “provocations have no impact on Morocco , which fully exercises its sovereignty over its southern provinces, as well as over the rest of its national territory,” the head of Moroccan diplomacy said on Tuesday.

According to Moroccan public news agency MAP, Burita said the country “receives millions of tourists, as well as high-ranking officials and official delegations, every year, without any major problems.”

The minister cited as an example the visit on Monday of Gérard Larcher , president of the French Senate, the upper house of parliament, to Aaiun, in addition to “numerous trips made by businesspeople and international authorities”.

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“Like other countries in the world, any visit to Morocco, whether official, tourist or for specific missions, is subject to clear organizational procedures within a regulated framework, in accordance with the laws in force,” Burita assured.

“Anyone who respects these rules is welcome. We will apply the law to those who try to break it,” the diplomat added, at a press conference in Rabat with his Cape Verdean counterpart, José Filomeno.

The European delegation, which tried to enter Aaiun last Thursday, was made up of the Portuguese Catarina Martins (Left Bloc), the Spanish Isabel Serra (Podemos) and the Finnish Jussi Saramo (Left Alliance).

“Morocco reserved the right not to accept the visit to the country” , said the ambassador, recalling that in the past there were several European parliamentary delegations that visited Morocco “without problems”, delegations that, he said, “came within a broad framework of cooperation between Moroccan and European bodies”.

The EP delegation had left Las Palmas on Thursday aboard a Royal Air Maroc plane bound for Aaiun, but the three MEPs were prevented from leaving the aircraft and returned to the Canary Islands.

The three MEPs said they were part of an observation mission to analyse compliance with the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which annulled several agriculture and fisheries agreements between the 27 and Morocco, for violating the autonomy of Western Sahara.

According to what the Polisario Front representative in Portugal, Omar Mih, told Lusa, the delegation was prevented from carrying out “an observation trip” organized with the Sahrawi liberation movement that defends the independence of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1976.