Algeria: No obstacles to building the Arab Maghreb federation

The Algerian foreign minister Abdul Aziz Balkhadem has stated that the dispute between Algeria and Morocco on the file of the western Sahara will not be an obstacle for building the Arab Maghreb federation, working for strengthening relations between the two states and extending the bridges of cooperation between them to be a solid nucleus for the Maghreb federation, considering that the Sahara file will be solved through the UN.

Balkhadem's statements were made to journalists in Casablanca where he arrived coming from Nouakchott within the context of his Maghreb tour. He stressed he is conveying a message of "brotherhood and fraternity" from the Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika to King Mohammad VI.

The message, however, invited the Moroccan King to attend the Maghreb summit due to be held on June 21 and 22.

Balkhadem stressed that the Moroccan king's coming to Algeria will be an opportunity to hold discussions on relations between the two states which Balkhadem described as "of good quality" at the political level, expressing hope that this "good quality political relations will be revitalized in other areas."