Home

Sahara: The US are backing the Moroccan plan for autonomy

Written by Zineb
Thursday, 12 July 2007 03:46
The United States made a historical declaration yesterday at the UN, through the voice of its Ambassador and Alternate United States Representative in the United Nations for Special Political Affairs, Jackie Wolcott Sanders.The United States issued its own statement voicing support for Morocco's stance, while making no mention of the Polisario's settlement plan. "We again take note of the Moroccan (autonomy) proposal presented on April 11 ... and welcome Morocco's serious and credible efforts to move the process forward to a resolution," "We believe a promising and realistic way forward on the Western Sahara is meaningful autonomy," Sanders said Wednesday. "Morocco's initiative could provide a realistic framework to begin negotiations on a plan that would provide for real autonomy contingent the approval of the local population."
Read more...

Sahara conflict: King Mohamed VI determination to settle the issue

Written by Zineb
Wednesday, 27 June 2007 03:22
Just a week after the end of the first round of negotiations on the Sahara issue with the Polisario Front representatives, King Mohamed VI chairs a working session in Agadir with the delegation that participated in the talks. The monarch is determinate to find a consensual solution to the Sahara issue which respects national sovereignty and territorial unity of the Kingdom. The King gave his instructions for the preparation of the second round of talks scheduled for the second week of August in Manhasset. The sovereign also charged chairman of the Royal Advisory council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), Khalihenna Ould Errachid, to hold an extraordinary session of the Council on Friday in the southern city of Laayoune.Mohamed VI chose a regionalization policy as the sole way to development and progress based on democracy that enables Moroccan Southern Provinces' energies contribute to the economic and social development of these regions;
Read more...

Sahara Conflict: The Manhasset "Resolutions"

Written by Nadia
Thursday, 21 June 2007 04:38
The first round of negotiations between Moroccan and Polisario delegations started on Monday in Manhasset (Long Island), in accordance with the recent resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for negotiations without preconditions between the two parties to solve the three-decade old Sahara dispute. the combination of Morocco's autonomy plan, the Polisario Front's counter-proposal of independence with guarantees for Moroccan interests, and the UN Security Council's 30 April resolution calling for direct negotiations between the parties, has been hailed as a promising breakthrough in the Western Sahara dispute.The UN Secretary General has deputized his personal envoy, Peter Van Walsum, to host the two-day closed meeting. Representatives of Algeria and Mauritania, as well as of the so-called Group of Friends of Western Sahara, (France, Britain, Spain, the United States and Russia) are also attending, but are not taking part in the direct talks between the parties.
Read more...

Sahara Conflict: Preventing the coming "terrorism tsunami."

Written by Zineb
Monday, 11 June 2007 05:05
To the countries of the Maghreb, the anti-terrorist war is a national issue. The kind of terrorism that operates today in the Maghreb feels at ease because it takes advantage of the existing political and diplomatic contradictions, being the most evident and regrettable one, the distrust between Algeria and Morocco, with one border closed since 1994, and with the Sahara conflict pending. More than thirty years after the Spanish colony was ceded to Morocco by virtue of the Madrid Accord, the Western Sahara conflict remains unresolved. The three parties in question, Morocco, Algeria (which shelters and supports the Polisario Front) and the Polisario Front are entrenched in their positions. Although the independence of Western Sahara is as ever unacceptable for the Moroccan government and society, the Polisario Front, for its part, wants to hear of no other solution. For regional geostrategic reasons, it is sustained in its intransigence by the Algerian government. One can only wonder about the viability of "Micro States" in this globalization era.
Read more...

Sahara: Beyond the "Resolution"

Written by Fahd
Thursday, 24 May 2007 03:59
With a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the Sahara conflict, the UNSC's Resolution 1754 calls upon the parties and States to enter into negotiations without preconditions and in good faith. This is a resolution of substance that constitutes a crucial turning point in the search for realistic and workable solution of the issue. Morocco should take credit for trying to find a solution to the conflict; for improving the human rights situation in the territories and elsewhere in the country; for spending billions of dollars to develop the region...the Sahara is among the most developed region in morocco. After a year-long national discussion, after a worldwide touring of senior officials delegations to explain and muster up international support, morocco proposed to the United Nations, a plan to establish the Western Sahara as an autonomous region under Moroccan sovereignty that would provide effective self-determination for the Sahrawis, allowing for local decision-making and control over economic, social, linguistic and cultural issues. Algeria for political and strategic reasons helped create and lent armed support to a separatist movement the "polisario" pushing it to claim independence of the Western Sahara, but it is worth noting that Algeria would gain a great deal by dominating an area with phosphate reserves and an Atlantic coastline.
Read more...