King Mohammed VI warns Morocco will react with utmost severity to any threat to its security

RABAT – Morocco’s King Mohammed VI held Monday a phone conversation with UN chief Antonio Guterres on the latest developments in the Guerguerat buffer zone between Mauritania and Morocco, said the Royal Palace in a statement.

"His Majesty King Mohammed VI had a telephone conversation today with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. The conversation focused on the latest developments of the National Cause, including the situation in the Guerguerat zone in the Moroccan Sahara,” said the statement.

The phone conversation came two days after the Moroccan army cleared the Algeria-backed Polisario Front separatists from the Guerguerat border crossing point which they had blocked for three weeks.

During the conversation, King stressed that after the failure of all the laudable attempts by the Guterres, Morocco has shouldered its responsibilities within the framework of its most legitimate right, all the more so because this is not the first time that the "Polisario" militiamen engage in unacceptable actions, said the Royal Palace.

Morocco armed forces restored calm at the border crossing point as flow of traffic went back to normalcy.

King Mohammed VI said that his country “will continue to take the necessary measures to ensure order and guarantee a safe and fluid movement of people and goods in this area on the border between the Kingdom and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.”

The monarch reaffirmed to Guterres Morocco's steadfast commitment to the ceasefire while the North African kingdom remains firmly determined to react, with the utmost severity and within the framework of legitimate defence, to any threat to its security and the peace of its citizens.

He assured the UN Secretary General that Morocco “will continue to support his efforts within the framework of the political process which should resume on the basis of clear parameters, involving the real parties to this regional dispute and allowing a realistic and achievable solution within the framework of the Kingdom's sovereignty," concluded the statement.