Cabo Verde, by recognizing Morocco’s territorial integrity and the autonomy plan in the Moroccan Sahara, has adopted a position consistent with international law, in particular with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), said Cabo Verdean MP and lawyer Hélio Sanches.

This position is particularly “consistant with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the positions of the United Nations,” Sanches, who was a candidate for the October 2021 presidential elections in Cabo Verde, wrote in an article published Wednesday in local newspaper Expresso das Ilhas.

The position of the Cabo Verde Government, which is constitutionally competent to conduct the country’s foreign policy with regard to the Moroccan Sahara, is correct, coherent, responds to the aspirations of the Saharawis and is part of the evolution of this process within the framework of the United Nations, he stressed.

It is also in line with the new approach of the United Nations on the Moroccan Sahara, and is not isolated at the international level, since it coincides with the positions of almost all African countries, the United States of America and Europe, namely Spain, the former colonial power, Sanches pointed out.

In this sense, he stressed that “the government’s decision does not violate the Constitution of Cape Verde, especially since the recognition of States, in international law, is a political and sovereign decision of each State.”

The recognition of the territorial integrity of Morocco, including the Moroccan Sahara, which marks a “new era” with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and, above all, with the installation of a consulate in Dakhla, in the Sahara, is an important political decision, of exclusive constitutional competence of the legitimate Government of the Republic of Cape Verde, which directs the foreign policy of the country, and must be respected by all, including the other organs of sovereignty, he continued.

On the other hand, he considered that “the African Union, contrary to some recent declarations, does not have the legitimacy to intervene and mediate in the Sahara question, since it recognized this territory as a member, in violation of its own constitutional charter, when there was still a dispute with Morocco.”

Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse