Press report regrets lack of Arab efforts to settle Sahara conflict
Morocco-Regional, Politics, 9/4/2004

An article published Friday by the UAE newspaper "Al Khaleej" regretted the absence of Arab states in efforts to solve the Sahara conflict opposing Morocco to the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists who are claiming the secession of the Moroccan Sahara.

"Is it not strange that foreign countries are concerned by this question while Arab countries are absent in an issue that touches an important part of the nation?," wondered the article titled "Western Sahara problem: is there a solution."

The article said the creation of an artificial entity in the Moroccan Sahara is senseless, insisting that the maintain of Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara is the closest approach to reality.

The Moroccan Sahara has been an issue of dispute for almost 30 years since the kingdom retrieved it from Spain in 1975 under accords with Madrid and Mauritania.

Although the Sahara is rich with natural resources that are coveted by former colonial powers, they will not be able to make of this territory a state because what is needed is a strong grouping and not more weak countries.

Algeria, as a country with an important weight in the Maghreban and Arab scenes, should take this question into account instead of continuously evoking the "decolonisation process" at a time when colonial powers are awaiting the chance to come back to the region, he stressed.

The article recalled the upcoming visit of special representative of the UN secretary general to the Sahara, Alvaro de Soto, noting that the UN official should have "large prerogatives" to introduce amendments to the plan of his predecessor, James Baker.

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