ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MOROCCO 9 - 12 NOVEMBER
Press Release
SG/T/2157
ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MOROCCO 9 - 12 NOVEMBER
19981113 (Received from a spokesman travelling with the Secretary-General.)The Secretary-General travelled from the headquarters of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to Marrakesh in the afternoon of Monday, 9 November. Upon arrival in Marrakesh, he was greeted by Abdellatif Filali, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco, who accompanied him to his hotel.
The Secretary-General dined that evening with King Hassan II of Morocco.
On Tuesday, 10 November, his first meeting was with Prime Minister Abderrahman El-Youssoufi. The meeting was also attended by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Filali; the Minister for the Interior, Driss Basri; Ahmed Snoussi, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations; and members of the Secretary-General's party. The meeting was devoted to the United Nations plan for the settlement of the conflict of Western Sahara and especially the package of measures proposed by Security Council resolution 1204 (1998).
At noon, the Secretary-General met with the President of the Parliament, Abdelwahed Radi, and with the President of the Chamber of Advisers, Mohamed Jallal Es-Said, who later hosted a luncheon in the Secretary-General's honour.
At 6:30 p.m., the Secretary-General had an audience with King Hassan II. Their talks focused on the subject of Western Sahara.
Later that evening, the Secretary-General was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by Foreign Minister Filali.
In the early hours of Wednesday, 11 November, the decision was taken, as a precautionary measure, to withdraw United Nations personnel from Iraq. Later that morning, at a press conference in Marrakesh, the Secretary-General said that he was "saddened and burdened" by Iraq's earlier decisions not to cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors. In his statement (see Press Release SG/SM/6790), he strongly urged President Saddam Hussein to rescind these decisions and immediately to resume cooperation with the United Nations Security Council. "This would be good", he said, "for the Iraqi people, for the region and for the world."
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On that day, the Secretary-General decided to suspend his North Africa trip and to return to New York the following day. Before leaving, he held another meeting with Moroccan Minister for the Interior, Mr. Basri.
The Secretary-General flew on Thursday, 12 November, from Casablanca direct to New York, arriving in the early afternoon.
In a statement delivered today, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Charles Dunbar, said that the Secretary- General intended to return to the region in the near future to continue his trip, which would include visits to Algeria and Tunisia.
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