Chirac : Sahara Issue should be Settled part of Maghreb Integration
Algeria-France, Politics, 4/16/2004

French president Jacques Chirac, insisted in Algiers Thursday that the "Sahara issue should be settled part of Maghreb integration."

"This problem should be solved within the framework of an inevitable Maghreb integration," he told a press conference subsequent to a private meeting with Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Chirac, deemed that resolving this issue depends on the parties, namely Morocco, Algeria and the guerrilla movement Polisario. This latter, backed by Algeria, is claiming the independence of the Moroccan Sahara, a former Spanish-occupied territory retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords.

The dispute over the Sahara has been a major stumbling block to the Arab Maghreb Union, a regional grouping set up in 1989 by Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania.

The French head of state, on a short visit to Algeria in the wake of Bouteflika's re-election as head of state, insisted that France's stance regarding this issue has not changed.

During a previous visit to Morocco last October, the French president had openly expressed support to Morocco in the Sahara issue and admitted divergences with Algeria on the issue. "We make a plea for a political, realistic and lasting solution that fully takes into account the interests of Morocco and the regional stability," Chirac had insisted.

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