A high-level U.S. delegation recently visited the premises of the future diplomatic representation of Uncle Sam’s country in the Moroccan Sahara.
The United States is determined to move on from speech to action after formally recognizing the sovereignty of the Cherifian Kingdom over Western Sahara in return for normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel.
Washington has just sent high-ranking officials to Dakhla, one of the main cities of the Moroccan Sahara. The U.S. delegation, led by David Schenker, Undersecretary of State for Near East and North Africa and David Fischer, U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, inspected the future headquarters of the U.S. Consulate General in the presence of the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita.
On the sidelines of this visit, Mr. Fischer told a press conference that “the Moroccan Sahara is inevitable and that Rabat has the only just and lasting solution to resolve this conflict.
The diplomat, the first U.S. ambassador to visit the Moroccan Sahara, stressed that the decision of Trump, is “the fruit of several months of negotiations and devotes years of preparation. For, David Fischer recalled, every administration since Bill Clinton has “supported the Moroccan autonomy plan as a viable solution to achieve peace” in the region.
As a result, the United States “have continued to invest in the future of the southern provinces, largely through funding through the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative, which focused on job creation and civil society capacity building,” Fischer said.
The U.S. diplomat said Rabat and Washington have worked “for decades with the United Nations to find a peaceful solution to bring the conflict out of stagnation.”
Pending the actual opening of their first consulate in a Moroccan Sahara city, the United States announced that “the (U.S.) government has already opened a virtual consulate in Dakhla as a first step,” in the words of Ambassador Fischer.
Since early January, he explained, “many U.S. government representatives have been on site to explore options for a permanent diplomatic presence.”
With the upcoming inauguration of this consular representation, the U.S. extends the list of countries present in Dakhla after Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Djibouti and Haiti.
In Laâyoune, the other major city in the southern provinces of Morocco, Comoros, Gabon, Central African Republic, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Eswatini and Sao Tome and Principe are already established.
The United States intends to increase its investments in Dakhla, nicknamed the pearl of southern Morocco, to contribute to economic and social development. Uncle Sam’s country will also benefit from Morocco’s strategic positioning as a trade hub between Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
In that regard, a web portal dedicated to economic promotion and investment support in the region of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab was officially launched.
HA/id/los/te/lb/abj/APA