Morocco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, said Tuesday that UN Security Council Resolution 2797 represents an “unprecedented political verdict” and a definitive roadmap for resolving the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
Addressing the annual session of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization in New York, Hilale argued that the Security Council had firmly established its exclusive authority over the issue by treating it under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which deals with the peaceful settlement of disputes and the maintenance of international peace and security.
“The Security Council upheld the law,” Hilale said, stressing that the Moroccan Sahara issue is no longer being addressed through the framework of decolonization but as a political dispute falling within the Council’s mandate.
The Moroccan diplomat recalled that Article 12 of the UN Charter was designed to prevent institutional overlap between UN bodies, arguing that the Security Council has been the sole body responsible for the issue since 1991.
“This is not an opinion. It is international law. It is the UN Charter,” he told delegates.
Hilale criticized the Committee of 24 for continuing to examine the issue using what he described as “outdated parameters,” despite recent diplomatic developments and the momentum generated by Resolution 2797.
Referring to the recent regional tour conducted by Staffan de Mistura, including visits to Algeria and the Tindouf camps, the ambassador said the committee remained “bogged down in routine” while the political process had entered a new phase.
He maintained that the decolonization process in the Sahara ended with its “irreversible return” to Morocco in 1975, following the Green March and the Madrid Agreement, arguing that the territory no longer meets the criteria of a non-self-governing territory.
According to Hilale, the dispute is instead a regional conflict sustained from outside the territory, one that continues to hinder regional integration and poses challenges to stability in North Africa and the Sahel.
The ambassador described Resolution 2797, adopted by the Security Council on October 31, 2025, as a “historic and irreversible turning point.”
He said the resolution establishes Morocco’s autonomy initiative under Moroccan sovereignty as the sole basis for a political settlement, confirms the abandonment of the referendum option, and identifies Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front as the parties responsible for advancing the political process.
“Keeping this issue on the C24 agenda amounts to stubbornly going in circles,” Hilale argued, saying such an approach ignores both the legal framework established by the Security Council and the realities of the ongoing political process.
The Moroccan envoy also highlighted what he described as growing international support for the autonomy initiative, noting that more than 130 countries back Morocco’s proposal and that over 30 countries have opened consulates in the Kingdom’s southern provinces.
He further pointed to the socio-economic development underway in the region, citing investments exceeding 87 billion dirhams under Morocco’s development programme for the southern provinces.
Hilale concluded by asserting that the Moroccan Sahara is not a territory awaiting an uncertain future status but a region experiencing sustained economic growth, political participation and cultural development.
“To the misleading decolonial rhetoric propagated within this Committee, Morocco counters with the economic development of its provinces, the prosperity of its citizens, political inclusivity, the promotion of Hassani culture, and the collective ownership of the region’s promising future,” he said.
