Rabat, Maputo endorse U.N. efforts for peaceful settlement of Sahara issue

Morocco and Mozambique expressed in Rabat on Thursday endorsement of efforts by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and his personal envoy, James Baker to find a peaceful political solution to the Sahara issue.

The two countries expressed their stance by way a communique made public at the end of the joint commission's works, held in Rabat on March 4-5, under the joint chairmanship of Morocco's foreign affairs and cooperation delegate minister, Taieb Fassi Fihri and Mozambican foreign affairs and cooperation deputy-minister, Ms Frances Rodrigues.

A political solution to this conflict "will create conditions conducive to a better integration of the countries of the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA)," said the communique.

The two African countries hoped "that obstacles will be overcome so that Morocco can participate, along with the whole of Africa, in the new African Union (AU)," the source went on.

Morocco withdrew in 1984, from the Organization of the African Union, ancestor of current AU, in protest against the admission of the phantom republic of the Sahara republic, self-proclaimed by the Polisario secessionists. Since then, Morocco has been conditioning its return to the African organization to the expulsion of the puppet entity.

The first joint commission also resulted in the signing of a memorandum of understanding establishing bilateral consultations.

The memorandum aims to promote cooperation ties between the two countries' foreign affairs and cooperation ministries through regular consultations in order to review all aspects of bilateral relations and exchange views on international issues of common interest.