Sahara dispute, an issue between Morocco and Algeria, says ambassador
Morocco-Algeria, Politics, 11/1/2003

Moroccan ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Bennouna, has insisted that the more than a quarter century-old Sahara dispute is an issue between Morocco and Algeria.

"Everybody knows, now, the hands pulling the puppet strings. Everybody knows the identity of the manipulator. So, let's be adults, let's negotiate a mutually acceptable solution as the international community is inviting us to do," said the Moroccan diplomat in an interview broadcast Thursday evening by the Tangiers-based radio "Medi 1."

The successive governments in Algeria, moved by geo-strategic interests in the region, have since the beginning of this conflict in 1975 sided with the "Polisario Front," a separatist movement claiming independence of the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco under the Madrid accord that brought an end to the Spanish presence in those southern Moroccan territories.

Bennouna further revealed that "Algeria has just mobilised all its diplomatic apparatus to try to convince the (member) states (of the UN security council) to agree with its draft resolution supporting the Baker (peace) plan." But, he explained, Algeria had to withdraw its draft resolution, as these states refused to get involved in what they consider as a Moroccan-Algerian bilateral dispute.

The Moroccan diplomat reiterated the kingdom's appeal to Algeria to negotiate "a mutually-acceptable solution."

Brushing aside his Algerian counterpart's statement that the Sahara dispute is an issue between Morocco and the so-called Polisario, Bennouna said: "let's be adults, let's negotiate a mutually acceptable solution as the international community invites us to do." He insisted that the only way out to this regional geo-political conflict is to sit "around a table" and hold sincere negotiations to reach a "realistic and lasting settlement." The Moroccan diplomat lashed out at Algeria's stubborn denial of any link with the conflict and argument that it is an issue between Morocco and the United Nations, between Morocco and the so-called Polisario." Such an attitude, he went on, is "an insult to the intelligence of the United Nations member countries."

"We are not playing ping pong here. Algeria and Morocco must bear together a common responsibility in preparing a better future for the people of the Maghreb."

Algeria, he said, has spent "considerable amounts of money to support a puppet entity, putting in jeopardy even the African organization, in order to oppose Morocco's territorial integrity," said Bennouna.

He referred to the recent statements by US assistant secretary of state for North Africa and the Middle East, William Burns who said the US administration encourages direct talks between Morocco and Algeria. Burns's statement, said Bennouna, "expressed clearly the conclusions reached by the sweeping majority of member states and all those who had to deal with this issue."

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