Moroccan King Mohammed VI said in a message delivered by his envoy to the African Union (AU) summit in Uganda that the time has come for his country to rejoin the bloc, the BBC reported on Monday. “It has been a long time that our friends have been asking Morocco to take back its seat in its natural institutional place, and now the time has come,” the king wrote in his letter, Reuters reported. Morocco is seeking support for a plan to offer the disputed Western Sahara territory autonomy while remaining under Morocco’s jurisdiction. The country left the AU 32 years over the organization’s recognition of the breakaway Western Sahara. At least 36 of the 54 AU’s members do not recognize the Western Sahara, Morocco claims. Influential members such as Algeria and South Africa, however, prefer a referendum be held to resolve the issue. The United Nations has a mission in Morocco whose objectives include preparing for such a referendum to take place. The mission has been in operations since 1991.