UN General Assembly
1977

69. In thus cynically trampling underfoot the fundamental principles of the Charters of the OAU and of the United Nations—principles to which they owe their own existence—those two States have lost the honour and respect which they won at the time of their struggle against French colonialism. But one of the accomplices in those misdeeds will have lost not only respect but no more nor less than its sovereignty as well. Indeed, the Mauritanian people are realizing today that, under the pretext of providing for its security, Morocco has seized upon this unexpected opportunity of realizing its ancient mad ambition simply to annex Mauritanian territory. 70. Mauritania, if not grateful, should at least recall the support given it at the time by the international community—an effective support that was not bought or sold—in the defence of its inalienable right to self- determination and the inviolability of the frontiers it inherited from the colonial era.