MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The agreement was signed by Morocco’s Ambassador to the United Nations Omar Hilale and his Cuban counterpart Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez at Cuba’s permanent mission to the United Nations in New York on Friday, Radio Havana Cuba said.
The decision to re-establish diplomatic relations was made to develop cooperation in the political, economic and cultural spheres, according to the broadcasting station.
Cuba and Morocco severed diplomatic ties in 1980 after Cuba supported the Polisario (Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro) movement in the Western Sahara conflict.
The United Nations has been trying to negotiate a lasting political solution for the Western Sahara crisis that would provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara, after Morocco claimed control of northern parts of the former Spanish colony in 1975.