Bouteflika will honor the understanding with King Hassan on Sahara

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika underlined Friday that his "moral duty is to remain faithful" to what he and the late King Hassan II convened about the Sahara, namely that this issue is part of the prerogatives of the United Nations and of the Houston accords, while bilateral issues must be handled in the frame of Moroccan-Algerian relations.

"This is the best way to honor the memory of my brother and friend King Hassan II, may his soul rest in peace," President Bouteflika said in a statement to the press at the end of his meeting in Algiers with French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. He stated further, "We (Morocco and Algeria) are able to settle our problems today as we were able to do so in the past."

Regarding the reopening of borders between the two countries, President Bouteflika said, "There remains only some technical problems to settle." "This of course would not prevent the politicians to meet, and at the highest level," the Algerian head of state said.

The spokesman for the Moroccan government, Khalid Alioua, had also said on Thursday that the reopening of Moroccan-Algerian borders depends only on some technical arrangements.

In his statement to the press, Bouteflika asserted that the reopening of borders was a purely technical problem. He added that "in any case, visa or no visa, closure or no closure of borders, Algerians like Moroccans cross by thousands the borders every day, with no visa nor documents."