Morocco: we are always willing for normal and deep relations with Algeria
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 7/18/2003

Morocco has always been keen on having normal, fruitful and deep relations with Algeria, said this Thursday Moroccan communication minister and spokesman of the government, Nabil Benabdellah.

Morocco has always expressed its will to have normal, deep and fruitful relations with Algeria, said the spokesman in an answer to a journalist's question on remarks made by Algerian president, Abdul Aziz Butaflika on his country's will to open a new page in its relations with Morocco.

The Algerian president had said at a dinner hosted in honor of visiting Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, Algeria is ready to start new relations with Morocco and put aside some issues that are currently handled by the United Nations Organization. The Algerian president was alluding to the Sahara issue, a source of tension between the two states, due to Algeria's backing to the Polisario secessionists that are claiming the independence of Moroccan southern provinces.

Benabdellah told reporters at the end of the weekly government meeting the two states are maintaining diplomatic relations as well as "numerous and various contacts."

While rejecting the term of "normalization," he stressed the need for concrete proposals and clear paths for deep ties between the two states. He also insisted that "today more than ever before, the two countries need to intensify contacts in order to reach a concrete vision that would at the same time consolidate bilateral relations and start a new page for the Maghreban construction to which we all aspire."

In another development, Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa, told Qatar-based "Al Jazeera" TV that Morocco and Algeria should endeavor to reach a fair and peaceful settlement to the Sahara issue, which he called "an essentially Moroccan-Algerian geo-political matter."

He urged for working hand in hand to settle issues and disputes between the two Maghreban states, re-open land borders (closed in 1994) and eliminate tension factors between the two states, first, and in the Arab Maghreb region.

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