Morocco slammed the US State Department’s report on human rights in the North African kingdom as a list of inventions and lies.
The official MAP news agency on Tuesday quoted the Interior Ministry as saying the report’s content is “truly scandalous.”
Morocco is an important US ally in a volatile region, making its irate, public reaction to last month’s report highly unusual, AP reported.
The report’s contents “went from approximation of information to pure and simple invention, from erroneous appreciation to lies,” MAP quoted the ministry as saying.
It denounced the sources used to compile the report as “unreliable” and “politically hostile.”
The State Department issues a country-by-country report each year on human rights around the world.
The latest report, issued April 13, listed corruption and widespread disregard by security forces for the rule of law as two significant ongoing problems in Morocco.
Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad has met with US Ambassador Dwight Bush about the report, and “technical working sessions” with embassy officials have been held, the ministry said. Apparently to no avail. “Morocco wants no more evasive responses, but precise case by case answers,” he said.
Morocco is obliged “to explore all possible paths” to uncover the report’s errors and “is prepared to go to the end”, not excluding taking its case to the “highest authorities in the different national American institutions.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman, John Kirby, rejected the criticism of the report by Morocco.
“The Department of State stands by the information contained in the 2015 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Morocco,” Kirby said.
