Morocco convinced referendum shall confirm sahara as Moroccan territory

Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa, renewed in an interview with Egyptian daily Al Ahram that Morocco is convinced that the referendum outcome will only confirm the Sahara as Moroccan territory if it is held in conformity with the United Nations Settlement Plan.

In the interview published on Tuesday, the head of the Moroccan diplomacy said UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, had predicted one year ago, the voting would take place in two or three years. He added that Annan had also reported several hardships are standing on the way of the referendum and called for "a political option." But, added Benaissa, Morocco has not received any other alternative.

He recalled that Morocco was behind the initiative to hold a referendum even when it submitted the issue to the International Court of Justice and asked to recover the Sahara in order to perfect its territorial integrity.

The United Nations Organization has deployed since 1991 in the Sahara-- a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords-- a mission to prepare for the holding of a referendum to give populations the opportunity to say whether they want the Sahara to remain Moroccan territory or stand up on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario movement.