UN General Assembly
1974

198. Thus, the unilateral policy of the Spanish Government being thus revealed in its crude reality, and the position of Morocco being what it has always been since 1956, since we were" admitted to the Organization, the situation seems to be the same as at the outset. We are forced, if we want to safeguard peace in this area, to study this problem once more without questioning the principles of decolonization and self-determination. We must rather give these principles real content, and apply them honestly, with regard for the particular and specific character represented by the liberation of the western Sahara. 199. In seeking to find some justification for its unilateral policy, the Spanish Government claims that the provinces of Rio de Oro and Sakiet El Hamra were originally Territories which did not fall under any sovereignty or administration. According to the Spanish Government, at the moment of colonial conquest they were res nullius, or Territories without a master, and that implies that the Spanish Government does not have to negotiate with Morocco for the process of decolonization.