(RABAT, Morocco) — Morocco on Tuesday canceled its annual military exercises with the United States after the Obama administration backed having the U.N. monitor human rights in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, U.S. officials said. The 13th annual "African Lion" exercise — involving 1,400 U.S. servicemen and 900 Moroccan troops, as well as foreign observers from places like France and Germany — had been set to start Wednesday with many personnel already in place. The troops and equipment were now in the process of being redeployed, according to Eric Elliott, a spokesman for the U.S. Africa Command, or Africom. Other U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there had not yet been a formal announcement of Morocco's reasons for the cancellation. Morocco's government spokesman declined to comment about the exercises. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1976, sparking a decades-long battle for independence by the Polisario Front group, which ended with a U.N.-brokered 1991 cease-fire. Mustapha Khalfi, the spokesman who doubles as the minister of communication, summoned journalists Tuesday to express his government's anger over initiatives to broaden the U.N. mission's mandate in Western Sahara to include human rights monitoring. "It is an attack on the national sovereignty of Morocco and will have negative consequences on the stability of the whole region," he warned. "We count on the wisdom of the members of the Security Council to avoid such initiatives." Ownership of the mineral-rich region is an incredibly sensitive matter for the Moroccans. Morocco has proposed a wide autonomy for Western Sahara, but the Polisario insist on the right to self-determination through a referendum. Neither side has budged and sporadic talks have ended in a stalemate. The U.N. observer mission in the Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, currently has 183 military observers, 26 troops and six civilian police and its mandate for the next year is being examined next week. (MORE: Is Marrakech's Westernized Female Mayor a Real Figure for Change?) "We are actively reviewing MINURSO's mandate and are working closely with our U.N.(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=82210&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin