Moroccan Parliament Votes To Establish Sovereignty Over Western Sahara's Waters - Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2020) The Moroccan parliament has passed two bills that establish the country's sovereignty over waters of southern provinces, which are disputed by the Polisario Front movement and often referred to as Western Sahara, national media reported.

According to the Hespress, the legislature unanimously approved the bills that establish sovereignty over territorial waters and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone off the disputed territory's coast.

Commenting on the move, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita has called the delimitation of the kingdom's maritime borders an internal issue which is governed by the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

For decades, Morocco has been involved in a conflict with the Polisario Front movement over control of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that was transferred under control of Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. In 1976, Polisario Front declared that it had established the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. This partially recognized state claims Western Sahara but controls only a small part of it.

The United Nations does not recognize the republic and demands that a referendum on self-determination be held. Morocco pushes a plan for the region's autonomy, while Polisario insists that the status of the territory should be determined by a referendum among the local population.