UK government reaffirms support to Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination

LONDON (UK)– The British government has reaffirmed its support to the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and to the efforts of the UN Secretary General for finding a just and lasting solution to the Sahrawi question, in compliance with the UN principles and objectives.

The stance of the UK government remain unchanged concerning Western Sahara sovereignty and its "support to the efforts of the UN Secretary General for finding a just and lasting solution to the Sahrawi question, in compliance with the UN principles and objectives," said a letter sent Wednesday by the UK Foreign Office official for the Arab Maghreb, to the Polisario Front representation in London.

Moreover, the British official said that the "British government follows the stages of the Gdeim Izik group trial and dispatched a representative of the British Embassy in Rabat to attend the trial originally scheduled for December 26th" and postponed to January 23rd, 2017.

"International observers and human rights organizations attended the trial alongside the international collective of lawyers (Belgium, France and Spain)," he added, saying that his government "will follow with interest the next trial in coordination with the European Union Mission in Rabat."

This letter came as a reply to the one sent by the Polisario Front representation in London to the British Foreign Office on the trial of the "Gdeim Izik" group as part of the international campaign for their release as well as all the Sahrawi political detainees in Moroccan prisons.

Polisario Front envoy to London, Mohamed Limam Mohamed Ali welcomed the British position and called on other European countries to "send representatives of their embassies to Morocco to attend the trial on 23 January."