Morocco and Algeria to give relations a new start
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 11/17/2000

Algerian state minister, interior and local communities minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said Algeria and Morocco "have great hopes to go ahead for a new start and build new relations based on total trust and balanced and shared interest."

In a joint-press briefing with Moroccan peer Ahmed El Midaoui, the state minister, who paid a visit to Morocco Thursday, said both men convened on a working method to make progress in a practical manner and decided to talk frankly, being convinced it was the only way.

In the Rabat meeting held following orientations by King Mohammed VI and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, he said, "We have started building new relations between the two countries" trying to translate into facts confidence and brotherly feelings.

Zerhouni announced that the larger joint cooperation commission will be revived and that a preparatory committee, to be set up during El Midaoui's visit to Algiers, will be meeting after Ramadan. In the meantime, he added, we will be working on problems of direct relevance to the interior departments and all those deemed standing will be examined.

To a question on the opening of borders, Zerhouni said the goal is to set up instruments to see to flux and movement of persons profit both countries so that open borders do not benefit ill-intentioned people in Morocco and Algeria. Opening borders will generate intensive economic activity which should be developed for mutual and balanced interest, he said.

Dealing with the impact of the Sahara issue on bilateral relations, the state minister defined the framework for the interior ministers saying it is based on the "entente between HM King Mohammed VI and President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to put at our level -at the discussion level- the Sahara problem between parentheses."

El Midaoui said the kingdom could not deal with any problem while putting definitively between parentheses problems of his territorial integrity completion. What matters most, El Midaoui went on, is to start dealing with issues with the vision that, at the end, all problems between the two countries, including the Sahara problem, will be settled.

Opening borders, though desirable, is not an end in itself, El Midaoui said adding the issue was covered as a logical consequence of normalizing.

"Algeria and Morocco mean to take in hand all standing problems with the will not only to build up cooperation but also complementarity and joint undertakings."

Previous Stories:
  Algerian interior minister arrives in Rabat   (11/16/2000)
  Speaker of Algerian senate upbeat over reactivation of relations with Morocco   (11/10/2000)
  Algerians support opening the borders with Morocco   (10/28/2000)

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