French FM calls for dialogue between Rabat and Algiers over Sahara dispute
Maghreb-France, Politics, 6/1/2004

Visiting French foreign affairs Minister, Michel Barnier, on Monday called for a dialogue between Morocco and Algeria to try to find a solution to the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, known as Western Sahara.

"To get out of the current situation, there must be a dialogue between these two sovereign countries, friends of France, that are Morocco and Algeria," he told a press conference in Rabat, at end of two-day official visit to the Kingdom.

"To carry out this dialogue, Algeria and Morocco do not need a tutor, a tutorship or a mediator, neither from France nor from anybody else," said the French minister who insisted this dialogue "belongs" to the two countries.

"There is another dialogue that Moroccans and Algerians should carry out together, the dialogue with James Baker (UN special envoy for the Sahara) in the framework of the United Nations," he noted.

When asked if there were any discussions between France and the United States about the Sahara issue, Barnier said discussions are rather held among permanent members of the UN Security Council, in the wake of the unanimous adoption, April 29, of the resolution extending the mandate of the MINURSO (French acronym for the United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara).

The French minister also emphasized the "importance" his government grants to the integration of the Maghreb. The North African regional grouping, made up of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya, has been attempting to achieve an economic bloc like the European Union but has so far failed to do so because of the dispute over the Sahara between two of its most populated countries, Morocco and Algeria.

Previous Stories:
  French president: no solution to Sahara issue should be imposed by third party   (12/8/2003)
  French president: maghreb unity essential for mediterranean rapprochement   (12/5/2003)
  French president hopes quick progress in maghreban integration, sahara issue   (3/11/2003)

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