The Moroccan Diplomat Omar Hilal Paradoxically Praises Normalization and Leads "Disarmament" Campaigns!

Over the course of 30 years among the corridors of the United Nations, "Omar Hilal" continues to represent Morocco in the capacity of the Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the United Nations in New York, bringing with him diplomatic experience in the embassies of several countries.

On June 29, 2021, Hilal said of the normalization agreements Israel signed with Arab countries, including Morocco: “I see the Middle East changing and I am very optimistic.”

Hilal added, during outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin's visit to the United States that "what happened several months ago is nothing less than a historical event... No one expected the State of Israel to reach such agreements."

On the 7th of the same month, Ambassador Hilal was elected, by acclamation, as Chairman of the First Committee of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

After his endorsement, Hilal said, "Morocco's choice comes in a difficult international context characterized by the deterioration of international security, the growing terrorist threat and the unprecedented exacerbation of challenges, old and new, affecting the edifice of international peace and security."

It is the first time for Morocco to assume the presidency of the Committee in charge of disarmament and international security.

 

Senior Positions

"Hilal" told the secrets of working at the United Nations, where he accumulated work experience for more than 30 years, and in 2004, he chaired the Conference on Disarmament in the Swiss city of Geneva, and he chaired the Third Committee of the General Assembly on social, humanitarian and cultural issues from 2015-2016.

Hilal, of Berber origin, was born on January 1, 1951, in the city of Agadir in southern Morocco. He is married and the father of three children.

The Moroccan diplomat has held the position of Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations in New York since April 2014, after he assumed the role of Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations in Geneva.

Hilal obtained his BA in Political Science in 1974 from Mohammed V Agdal University in the capital, Rabat, and held several diplomatic positions from 1996 to 2001, when he was ambassador to Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

He also held several positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Minister Plenipotentiary and Member of the Office of the Secretary of State, from 1993 to 1996.

From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Helal headed the department of the Ministry responsible for the United Nations General Assembly, the Security Council and international organizations.

He was appointed as First Secretary in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa between 1976 and 1979, and Deputy Ambassador in Monrovia and Liberia between 1979 and 1980, and was also appointed as the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates between 2005 and 2008.

In November 2008, the diplomat became Morocco's representative to the United Nations in Geneva, and on 8 April 2020, he served as a co-facilitator in the process of strengthening the UN human rights treaty bodies.

 

International Occupations

The 70-year-old diplomat is considered one of the most important pillars of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, having joined it in 1974.

His diplomatic career was marked by 30 years of experience with the United Nations, he held the position of Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva from 2001 to 2005 and from 2008 to 2014.

In this capacity, he assumed several responsibilities, including the facilitator of the universal periodic review process within the five sessions, and the annual review of the Human Rights Council from 1982 to 1991. He also served as a consultant and first secretary in Geneva.

He was Chairman of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on Strengthening the Role of the Organization, and served as Vice-President of the 72nd Session of the General Assembly.

He held the position of Vice-President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, as well as Chair of the Humanitarian Segment of the Economic and Social Council for two consecutive terms, in 2019 and 2020.

Helal was the President of the UNICEF Executive Board in 2019, and was elected Vice-President of the same Board twice, in 2020 and 2021, and is currently the Chair of the Central African Republic's formation of the Peacebuilding Commission.

He is also currently the Chair of the United Nations Information Committee, and founded and chaired the Group of Friends of Counter-Terrorism.

Professional Diplomat

Media described Hilal as a "professional diplomat."

Hilal is fluent in French and English as well as Arabic, and appears in all his outings in front of the cameras of the press, as well as in his interventions in United Nations meetings with a calm and sometimes smiling face.

His calm features do not prevent him from the sharp and diplomatic responses at the same time, about which the national press circulates videos extensively, especially to representatives of countries supporting the "Polisario" front, which demands Morocco to secede the territory of Moroccan Sahara.

Since it is Morocco's first cause, Hilal controls all the details of the file, and he held the position of second secretary in the diplomatic corps in Algiers, from 1975 to 1976, at the height of the political dispute between the late King Hassan II and Algerian President Houari Boumediene.

Hilal has accumulated experience in pleading before the UN body, to convince the representatives of the countries within it that Algeria is the main supporter of the "Polisario" front.

Most of Hilal's interventions, during his representation of Morocco at the United Nations in Geneva, centered on the response to the Algerian delegation.

The Human Rights Council was also an arena for conflict between the diplomatic delegation representing Algeria and the one led by Hilal. The two countries raised the human rights card against each other, and before the international community, the human rights card and the repression taking place on their respective territories, with the aim of weakening the position of the other.

Hilal’s Thought

From inside the headquarters of the UN body, Hilal stressed on June 15, 2021, that "the Moroccan Sahara never meets the criteria adopted by the United Nations for self-determination."

He said in an intervention before the 24th Committee of the United Nations General Assembly that after the signing of the Madrid Agreement on November 14, 1975, the principle of the right to self-determination as stipulated in Chapter 11 of the Charter of the International Organization no longer applies definitively to the Moroccan Sahara.

In October 2015, the Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations, said, speaking before dozens of representatives of member states in the Fourth Committee, that “the issue of the Moroccan Sahara is not a question of decolonization, but is in fact an issue related to the territorial integrity of the Kingdom.”

He explained that "for Morocco, the issue of the Sahara is not a matter of decolonization, but rather a matter of completing its territorial integrity."

In March 2021, 3 months after the signing of the tripartite normalization agreement with the United States and Israel, Hilal came out in a television interview with the American “Al-Hurra” channel, saying: “Coexistence and tolerance in the region are the demand of the people, not just the leaders”. He revealed that, “communications Between Morocco and Israel has never been cut off."

The diplomat considered that "the region has lived through a decade of religious fanaticism, the state organization, al-Qaeda, and the Ibrahim Agreement may encourage a culture of acceptance of the other," and pointed out that political agreements alone are not sufficient to create coexistence and achieve what he described as "hot peace."

In the same media statements, Hilal, speaking about relations with Israel, added that "the Jews are an ancient part of the Moroccan identity, and the Jews of Morocco in Israel are proud of Morocco."