Morocco is currently conducting a diplomatic offensive, responding to the Polisario's violation of the 1991 ceasefire. This is not the first time that the Kingdom denounces such provocations. Faced with the Polisario's clear desire to change the status quo in the UN-monitored buffer zones established in September the 26th in 1991, Morocco is not keeping quiet. «If the United Nations, the General Secretariat and the Security Council do not put an end to these provocations, Morocco will have to act out its responsibility and intervene», warned Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Nasser Bourita during a press briefing. Asking the international organization to «assume its responsibilities», the Kingdom is asking for more than just a simple «warning» for the Polisario. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit insisted that «Morocco will not stand idly by» and it is «ready for anything, absolutely anything, to preserve its territorial integrity». Abdelouafi Laftit pointed out that Algeria is to be held accountable for what is happening in the Sahara, indicating that «every month, dozens of young people from the southern provinces are trained in Algiers to commit acts of vandalism and cause public unrest», reported MAP news agency. What is the MINURSO doing ? The Moroccan offensive has been launched also in New York, where permanent representative of Morocco to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, sent a letter to the Security Council's president Gustavo Meza-Cuadra. «This illegal act by the other parties, seriously threatens the UN political process that the UN Secretary General and his Personal Envoy work tirelessly to relaunch. With their repeated violations, which are now extended to several zones in the East of the security structure in the Moroccan Sahara, the other parties seriously condemn any chance of relaunching the political process,» stressed Hilale in the letter. Indeed, the diplomat stressed that violating the ceasefire and the exacerbation of tensions on the ground, are antithetical to the political process which imperatively needs, according to the UN Secretary General, a favorable and serene environment. Repeated incursions The United Nations should break the silence that has lasted for more than two decades. For the record, Morocco had alerted the UN to the Polisario violations of buffer zones' status on many occasions. Already in September 1991, King Hassan II had sent a letter to former UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez De Cuéllar urging him to «take the necessary measures to ensure that the withdrawal of these armed groups from the territory (Tifarity, ed)». The same position was reiterated by the Moroccan diplomacy in 1992, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
