NEW YORK: Morocco has “decided not to withdraw its troops” from United Nations peacekeeping missions, Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said on Thursday, despite Rabat’s anger over comments by UN chief Ban Ki-moon about the disputed Western Sahara region.

Rabat accused Ban last week of no longer being neutral after he used the word “occupation” to describe Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara. The region has been at the center of a struggle since 1975, when Morocco took over from colonial power Spain.

Morocco had threatened on Tuesday to pull its troops out of UN peacekeeping missions worldwide.

Earlier this month Ban visited refugee camps in southern Algeria for the Sahrawi people, who say Western Sahara belongs to them and fought a war against Morocco until the 1991 ceasefire.