Morocco says it is ready for frank dialogue over sahara
Morocco, Politics, 9/29/2000

Morocco said Thursday it was ready to start a sincere and frank dialogue with the other party.

This came in an official release circulated Thursday in Rabat at the end of a meeting in Berlin of the parties involved in the Sahara issue under the aegis of James Baker, the United Nations Secretary-General's personal envoy for the Sahara.

Morocco is ready to start in the few coming weeks a sincere and frank dialogue with the other party with a view to finding a lasting and final settlement of the Sahara issue, taking into account Morocco's territorial integrity and within the Moroccan decentralization plan, the release said.

Morocco underlined during the Berlin meeting that the settlement of the issue should take into account Morocco's supreme interests, national unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty as well as the peculiarities of the region within the respect of democratic and decentralization principles that the Kingdom wants to develop and implementing starting by the Sahara region, said the release circulated by the Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation ministry.

Morocco also proposed to hold in the few coming weeks a meeting with the concerned parties, under the aegis of James Baker.

Morocco was represented in the Berlin meeting by a delegation, led by foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa and interior minister, Ahmed El Midaoui. Algeria was represented by its justice minister, Ahmed Ouyahia.

The Berlin meeting, held at the headquarters of the German foreign affairs department, follows two rounds previously held in London.

The United Nations is trying to settle the Sahara issue through the holding of a self-determination referendum. The vote is designed to determine whether the Sahara - a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975-sets up on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario, or remains part of Morocco.

The vote was repeatedly delayed due to the Polisario's stalling tactics. Fearing a Moroccan victory, the Polisario separatists try to shrink voters lists through refusing the identification of thousands of genuine Sahrawis.

Previous Stories:
  Meeting on Sahara opens in Berlin   (9/28/2000)
  Sahara issue meeting today decisive   (9/28/2000)
  For Morocco, Sahara is no longer decolonization issue   (9/26/2000)

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