La Gazette du Maroc: There would not have been any Polisario without Algeria, researcher

The Polisario Front, that is claiming the separation of Morocco's southern provinces (the Sahara), would have never seen light without Algeria, affirmed Algerian journalist and researcher Yahya Abou Zakaria.

In an interview published Monday in the weekly "La Gazette du Maroc," Abou Zakaria said Algiers' support to Polisario is translated notably through its presence on the Algerian territory, noting that "Polisario members are travelling around the world using Algerian passports and documents."

Algeria also provides diplomatic, military and logistic assistance to the Polisario separatists that have been claiming the separation of the Moroccan Sahara since 1976. The former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords.

Abou Zakaria, researcher in Stockholm Center for strategic studies, said all historical documents evidence that the Sahara is Moroccan, pleading for the normalisation of relations between Rabat and Algiers. He noted, however, that the improvement of relations between the two Magherban neighbors goes through a final solution to the Sahara conflict and a frank dialogue between the two sides.

Evoking the statements of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the wake of the Maghreb summit that was due in Tripoli late May, Abou Zakaria said it would have been wiser for the Algerian President to avoid such statement especially since he is an experienced diplomat who knows that such a political rhetoric may provoke a crisis.

A message of Bouteflika to the Polisario leader, wherein he expressed support to the separatist group, has led to the postponement sine die of the Maghreb summit that has failed to meet since 1994 notably because of the Sahara issue.