No Moroccan-Algerian problem over Sahara, Bouteflika says
Algeria-Morocco, Politics, 8/12/1999

There is no bilateral problem between Morocco and Algeria over the Sahara, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said on Wednesday.

There is no problem between Morocco and Algeria over the Sahara, and Algiers will respect the result of the referendum that the United Nations plans to hold in the Sahara, Bouteflika told the Japanese Asahi Shimbun daily.

The United Nations intends to hold in July, 2000 a self-determination referendum in the Sahara to determine whether the former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accords sets up on its own or remains part of Morocco.

President Bouteflika also dwelt on the recent positive evolutions in Moroccan-Algerian relations, noting that Rabat and Algiers share a strong will to endeavor for the triumph of neighborliness and cooperation and for the speeding up of the Maghreban integration process.

"This process was already started with the late King Hassan II, and it is for me a moral duty to harbor the same trust and feelings of brotherhood and friendship for his successor (King Mohammed VI)," President Bouteflika said.

Moroccan-Algerian relations have been tangibly improving since the election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika last April.

Bouteflika and the late King Hassan II were expected to meet to translate into reality the growing rapprochement between the two neighbor states and pave the way for the reactivation of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA, mustering Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia).

Previous Stories:
  Opening of Moroccan-Algerian borders an economic and human need   (8/10/1999)
  Opening of Moroccan-Algerian borders an economic and human need   (8/10/1999)
  Contacts between Algeria and Morocco to reopen borders   (8/6/1999)
  Moroccan - Algerian summit shortly   (8/4/1999)

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