Irish Foreign Minister rejects falsifications by Polisario lobbyist

9/15/2020

Ireland "supports UN process and SG efforts for final political solution" in the Sahara and wants to strengthen relations with Morocco with an Irish embassy in Rabat

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney reiterated his country's position on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, calling for a political settlement within the framework of the UN process.

Responding to a question by a deputy from his country on relations with Morocco, whose noteworthy progress over the past years have tormented the enemies of territorial integrity, especially after the announcement of the upcoming opening of the Irish Embassy in Rabat, Coveney stressed that his country "supports the UN-led process and the UNSG's efforts to achieve a final political settlement" to the Sahara issue.
Contrary to the biased reporting by the APS, the answer of the top Irish official remained governed by the unchanging position of his country on the Sahara issue which is in perfect harmony with that of the UN.
Using a vicious game of quotation marks and invented and decontextualized quotes, the APS attributes to the Irish minister his so-called country's support for the "self-determination referendum", an option discarded long ago by the UN and to which Coveney makes no reference.
On the contrary, in his response, the Irish foreign minister insists on the positive neutrality of his country and defers to the decision to be taken by the UN.
"We have no opinion on the outcome of this decision," Coveney explained.
Refusing any instrumentalization of human rights, which is a favorite activity of Algeria and its Polisario partners, Coveney affirmed that he deals with this issue regularly and without complex or complacency with the Moroccan authorities whenever the occasion allows.
"My department is in permanent contact with the Moroccan embassy. I met the Ambassador of the Kingdom in July 2019, when he had accompanied the speaker of the House of Representatives, Habib El Malki during his visit to Dublin. During this meeting, we had very useful talks on a series of political, commercial and economic issues, including that of human rights", the Irish foreign minister recalled.
He added that "senior officials from his department meet regularly with the Moroccan ambassador to discuss a wide range of issues, including that of human rights."
Respect for human rights, he went on to say, “is an integral part of Ireland's foreign policy and we constantly seek to debate human rights issues through the most appropriate and effective channels, including at bilateral and European levels, and through the United Nations universal periodic review mechanism”.
Same for Morocco, the issue of human rights is discussed frankly and transparently in the various forums dedicated to it at the national, regional and international levels, which assess the major progress made in this area at its real value.
Coveney concluded his response by saying that he was excited to deepen relations with the Kingdom.
"I look forward to deepening our bilateral commitment and our dialogue with Morocco with the opening of an Irish embassy in Rabat," said the Irish Foreign Minister.
This sentence was, of course, deleted from the APS news story to keep the usual hateful discourse which is, in addition to disinformation and manipulation, is at the heart of the agency's business.
Needless to recall, in this context, the news story issued recently by the APS which affirms that an organization called "the UN Litigation Office in Geneva" rejected a complaint from a group of Algerian political activists "24 hours after its submission and examination by the legal representatives of the Office".
This made-up news story also earned the Algerian agency a scathing update from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights which specifies that such information "was completely fabricated" and that there is no United Nations human rights body called the UN Litigation Office in Geneva.