Morocco’s top diplomat used the world’s largest stage on Wednesday to declare a turning point in one of Africa’s longest-running territorial disputes. Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly’s high-level general debate in New York, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told delegates from 193 member states that the Western Sahara file has entered a genuinely new phase since the Security Council adopted Resolution 2797 in October 2025, one aimed squarely at reaching a final political settlement.
Bourita described the resolution as having launched « an irreversible path that breaks with the past and looks toward the future. » He urged all parties to enter negotiations without preconditions, based on Morocco’s 2007 autonomy proposal under Moroccan sovereignty, which Rabat continues to present as the only realistic and credible route out of the decades-old impasse. Diplomats following the file read the emphasis on « no preconditions » as a pointed message to the separatists and their regional backers, delivered weeks ahead of what are seen as pivotal negotiating rounds.
The minister devoted a significant portion of his address to security threats facing the African continent and international shipping lanes. He warned that non-state armed groups now control or contest state authority over areas home to more than one million people, and are increasingly targeting freedom of navigation through strategic straits. Bourita called for tougher international sanctions against these groups and the networks that finance and arm them.
On climate policy, Bourita noted that Morocco remains among the countries most exposed to water stress despite contributing only marginally to global greenhouse gas emissions. He pointed to new dam construction, the interconnection of river basins, expanded seawater desalination capacity, and wastewater treatment and reuse as pillars of the kingdom’s national water strategy.
Turning to the Middle East, the minister reaffirmed Morocco’s longstanding support for an independent, sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. He detailed the kingdom’s role in the international stabilization force deployed in Gaza, including training Palestinian police officers, deploying senior military personnel, setting up a field hospital, and running counter-extremism programs. Bourita voiced concern over expanding settlement activity in the West Bank and repeated incursions at Al-Aqsa Mosque, reaffirming King Mohammed VI’s personal commitment, as chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, to preserving the historic and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites.
Delivered just months after a Security Council vote Rabat regards as a watershed moment, Wednesday’s speech underscored Morocco’s ambition to convert recent diplomatic momentum into tangible outcomes, while positioning the kingdom as an indispensable voice on security, climate and regional peace at the United Nations.