Morocco hails Trump’s Appropriations bill

Foreign Ministry welcomes 2019 Appropriations bill signed by US President which explicitly states that funds allocated to Morocco are also available for assistance to Western Sahara.

CASABLANCA - Morocco welcomed Friday US President Donald Trump’s signing of the Appropriations Bill which explicitly stated that the funds appropriated to the North African kingdom shall be made available for assistance in the Sahara, dealing a new blow to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front.

Morocco’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (DFAIT) stressed that “the US executive and legislative powers, embodied respectively by the President and the two Houses of Congress, agree to consider the Sahara region as an integral part of Morocco and to make it benefit from cooperation funds in the same way as all the other regions of the Kingdom.”

“This development in the United States comes a few days after the adoption by the European Union of agricultural and fisheries agreements that apply to the entire national territory, including the Moroccan Sahara,” said the ministry.

The European Parliament adopted last week by an overwhelming majority the new fisheries deal between Morocco and the European Union (EU).

The fisheries agreement between Morocco and the EU sets the conditions for access for the European fleet and provides the requirements for sustainable fishing.

The deal, which only concerns Morocco's Atlantic coasts including the disputed Western Sahara territory, excludes the Mediterranean coast to preserve its overexploited resources.

This new US budget law calls on the US Administration to submit, after consultation with UNHCR and the World Food Program, a report to Congress on measures taken to strengthen surveillance of the delivery of humanitarian aid to refugees in the North African region, in a clear allusion to the populations of Tindouf refugee camps, said the same source.

The ministry stressed that these provisions reflect the documented diversions and trafficking of international aid to the populations of these camps.