Liberation of Sebta, Mellilia concerns all Africans, minister

The liberation of Sebta and Mellilia, two northern Moroccan cities still under Spanish rule, is not a strictly Moroccan issue, it rather concerns all Africans, a Moroccan minister said.

"The world will accept, on the eve of the 21st century, no form of occupation," Abdeslam Znined, minister in charge of Maghreb, Arab and Islamic world affairs, told the Arabic magazine Al-Watan Al-Arabi.

The late King Hassan II proposed 10 years ago the setting up of a reflection group to ponder a solution, preserving Morocco's sovereignty over the two cities and the islands adjacent and protecting Spanish interests.

The Moroccan minister said he was astonished to see Spain request negotiations with the United Kingdom regarding Gibraltar, while it refuses all dialogue with Morocco on the two presidios.