Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita was in Madrid on Thursday, April 17. During a joint press conference with his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares, Bourita sharply criticized the Polisario Front's allies in Spain, particularly within far-left parties and the Catalan and Basque independence movements. «Those who cling to outdated positions are not truly seeking to resolve a problem that has persisted for 50 years. They want those who have been living in the camps for half a century to continue enduring inhumane conditions», said the Moroccan diplomat. «It's easy, from Madrid or Stockholm, to advocate for patience while waiting for a referendum. But if you had lived in these camps for 50 years, you wouldn't say such things. They want the Sahrawis to go on living like this for another 50 years», he added. Bourita emphasized that the Moroccan autonomy plan «represents a dynamic path toward a solution under United Nations auspices, and not merely a diplomatic position». For the record, José Manuel Albares expressed a similar stance in an interview earlier this month with a Canary Islands media outlet. «We don't want a situation that has been stalled for 50 years to persist for another half-century. It's extremely irresponsible to invoke so-called principles just to keep this conflict frozen for 100 or even 200 years», he said. The Polisario Front later condemned these comments in a statement.
