TANGIERS, Morocco - Moroccan King Mohammed VI on Monday said he would work to improve living conditions in the north African country to combat terrorism.
Speaking on the eighth anniversary of his coronation, he said his "supreme objective is to raise living conditions for those who suffer the torments of poverty, illiteracy, marginalisation and exclusion to protect them against the temptations of extremism, ostracism and terrorism".
Morocco has been on edge since a series of suicide bomb attacks earlier this year killed a police officer and injured 45 people.
The country's security forces have been put on maximum alert because of "established terror threats" from what experts said was the regional branch of Al-Qaeda.
The king also devoted a large portion of his address to Western Sahara, saying autonomy should be the final solution to the 30-year conflict over the disputed territory.
He said a "consensual autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty" was the answer.
Morocco and the Polisario independence movement held direct UN-brokered negotiations on June 18 and 19, with a second round scheduled for August 10 and 11.
"As long and laborious as the negotiations can be, we will keep our hand outstretched in the direction of all the real concerned parties for a political resolution of this artificial conflict in the hopes of convincing them of the historic opportunity that these negotiations offer," he said.
Rabat annexed Western Sahara after the withdrawal of former colonial ruler Spain and neighbor Mauritania in the 1970s, settling it with around 300,000 Moroccans in 1975.
Last April, Morocco unveiled an autonomy referendum that envisages giving Sahrawis "control over their affairs through legislative, executive and judicial institutions" under Moroccan sovereignty and calls for "negotiations for a political solution acceptable to all parties."
The Polisario has rejected the Moroccan referendum proposal and put forward its own settlement plan demanding respect of "the right of the (local) people for self-determination" through a referendum offering the option of independence.
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