Three weeks before the start of the 31st African Union summit, Moussa Faki Mahamat visits Morocco to discuss the implementation of Resolution 653, adopted July 2017. The AU Chairperson will have to head later to the Tindouf camps. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, arrived Tuesday, 5th of June, in Rabat for a «two-day official visit». The Chadian official was received by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and then invited to an Iftar hosted by King Mohammed VI. In principle, serious things are to start today for the diplomat. On his Twitter account, Faki Mahamat announced that he was visiting Morocco to conduct «high level consultations», and attend «an audience with HM King Mohammed VI». I arrived in Rabat for an official 2day visit of high level consultations in the Kingdom of Morocco that will include an audience with HM King Mohamed VI. pic.twitter.com/PRS7XpRhPz — Moussa Faki Mahamat (@AUC_MoussaFaki) 6 juin 2018 This trip has been on Moussa Faki Mahamat's schedule since the closing of the AU 30th Summit, held in January in Addis Ababa. The Chairperson had indeed been mandated by the Conference of Heads of States to draft a «detailed report» on the implementation of Resolution 653, adopted at the summit held on the 3rd and 4th of July 2017 in the Ethiopian capital. Will Morocco accept the African Union's intervention ? The resolution invited, in January, the African leader to submit to the continental body potential «measures and initiatives» he would «take, in collaboration with the United Nations, on the Western Sahara issue». The presentation of the report was later postponed to the Nouakchott meeting. The report in question is considered as a «road map» for the organization for the settlement of the Western Sahara conflict that is based on negotiations between the African Union and Morocco as well as the Polisario. After his trip to Rabat, the Chadian diplomat is expected to travel to the Tindouf Camps in the upcoming days. The Front has been waiting for this move for months. For the record, Morocco has always insisted that the United Nations is the only organization entitled to manage the conflict. The latest Security Council resolution (2414), adopted on the 27th of April, reaffirmed this choice despite the attempts of Algeria, the Polisario and the SG personal envoy Horst Köhler.
