RABAT: Morocco ordered on Wednesday the immediate departure of a Swedish diplomat accused of handing official Moroccan documents to Western Sahara-linked “separatists,” the Foreign Ministry said. Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri summoned Swedish ambassador Michael Odevald to tell him of “a serious breach in diplomatic practice and an unacceptable professional error committed by an adviser at Sweden’s embassy in Rabat, Mrs Anna Block-Mazoyer,” a statement said.
Block-Mazoyer “gave an official document that was given by the foreign and cooperation ministry to the Swedish embassy in Rabat as part of a diplomatic process to separatist elements linked to Algeria and the Polisario Front.”
“This document then turned up in the hands of enemies of the kingdom’s territorial integrity,” it said.
The Polisario Front seeks independence for the Western Sahara, a territory annexed by Morocco after Spanish settlers left in 1975.
The statement said that the Foreign Ministry had organized a briefing on Sahara developments to which diplomats were invited, including from Sweden which currently holds the rotating European Union presidency.
“Block-Mazoyer’s giving away this official document breaches ethical and diplomatic professional rules [so] Moroccan authorities demand [her] immediate departure.” – AFP
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