Moroccan Sahara issue is no obstacle to Maghreban integration, minister says

A Moroccan senior minister said the issue of the Moroccan Sahara is not at all a stumbling block to the construction of a united Arab Maghreb.

The issue of the Moroccan Sahara is not at all an impediment to the construction of the Arab Maghreb, Mohamed El-Yazghi, minister of territory development, environment, town planning and housing, told the London-based Middle-East Broadcasting Center (MBC).

El-Yazghi recalled that Morocco and Algeria "had agreed, since the signing of the Marrakesh accord setting up the Arab Maghreb Union (February 17, 1989) not to include the Sahara issue in the union's debates."

The Sahara issue opposes Morocco to the Algerian-backed Polisario front, which claims sovereignty over Morocco's southern provinces.

The issue is currently in the hands of the United Nations, which is projecting to hold a self-determination referendum to determine whether the former Spanish colony, retrieved by Morocco in 1975, sets up on its own or stays within Morocco.

After many delays the consultation, proposed by Morocco in the mid-1980's, is slated for March 2000.

Relatedly, the Moroccan wide-circulation daily Al-Alam of the Nationalist Istiqlal Party (PI-in government) voiced hope that Algeria would stop backing the Polisario separatists.

The daily also wished that the election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president of Algeria would mark the beginning of a new era in relations between the two neighboring countries.