Western Sahara May Seek U.N. Observer Status

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Juan Medina

According to an article translated by Al-Monitor, president of the Sahara National Council and head of the Polisario Front’s negotiating team Khatri Eddouh ”did not rule out that the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic  may request U.N. recognition as an observer state” as Palestine did recently. Eddouh said Palestine’s successful bid is “a moral and psychological victory for the Sahrawi people”, and he called on the international community to reconsider its stance on the status of Western Sahara.

Meanwhile, ahead of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s visit to Morocco, she hosted Moroccan Foreign Minister Youssef Amrani to discuss the US-Morocco Strategic Dialogue as well as her upcoming trip. Clinton will also attend a Friends of Syria meeting hosted by Morocco during her visit. Jennifer Rubin writes, “if nothing else, the trip to Morocco should impress upon Clinton that the ‘Arab Spring’ is not a one season episode, but a multi-year and probably multi-decade process in which the United States will have to find ways to maximize its leverage, promote reform, aid in the development of civil institutions and find new allies that can fill the breach while others (such as Egypt) may be in turmoil.”

Finally, reports have surfaced that an honorary Moroccan consul to Syria was gunned down outside a hotel in Aleppo, Syria. Mohamed Alae Eddinne, a Syrian citizen, was killed after armed men in a taxi attacked him. He had been the honorary consul of Morocco since 2001.