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Copyright 2002 Financial Times Information All rights reserved Global News Wire - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire Copyright 2002 BBC Monitoring/BBC BBC Monitoring International Reports April 30, 2002 LENGTH: 430 words HEADLINE: MOROCCAN MINISTER SAYS US ACCEPTS SAHARA "IS BASICALLY MOROCCAN-ALGERIAN" CRISIS BODY: Mohamed Benaissa, the Moroccan minister for foreign affairs and cooperation, has stated that King Mohammed VI's working visit to the United States at the invitation of President George Bush "underlined the solidity of relations between Rabat and Washington and the continued ties of friendship and cooperation that have existed for more than two centuries"... In reply to a question about the US position on the Western Sahara conflict, Benaissa said: "It was obvious that the United States understood the Moroccan position on the issue and understood it from several angles. Firstly, that the conflict is basically a Moroccan-Algerian one, that is, a geopolitical one. Therefore any attempt to reach a solution for this conflict can only be done through direct negotiations between Morocco and Algeria." He added: "In addition to this and for geopolitical reasons as well as historic and cultural ones, the United States became convinced that Morocco would not relinquish a single inch of its soil, including the Sahara region over which there is the dispute." Benaissa went on to say that this strategic depth is represented by the Moroccan-Mauritanian dimension and added: "Morocco will not accept the erection of barriers of any kind between it and fraternal Mauritania. Morocco's cultural heritage is also represented in the human and cultural presence in its south. The Moroccan Sahara space is an extensive one that has existed throughout history without interruption, from south of Agadir city to the Mauritanian border. Therefore Morocco cannot accept at all any partitioning of any part of its Saharan provinces." The Moroccan official pointed out: "The partition idea is in itself inconsistent with the peoples' right to self-determination behind which Algeria is hiding as it disputes Morocco's right to retrieve its southern provinces that were occupied by Spain and unite its territories." He explained that partitioning the land definitely means splitting and dispersing the population and tribes and this is bound to entrench the existing conflict and lead, God forbid, to a civil war whose end and consequences no one can foresee... He said: "We can see from these facts that King Mohammed VI's visit to Washington has put an end to some inclinations that ranged from establishing a local government in the Saharan provinces under Moroccan sovereignty, the partitioning of the land, to the establishment of an entity that separates Morocco from Mauritania"... Source: Al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, in Arabic 30 Apr 02 /) BBC Monitoring JOURNAL-CODE: WBMS LOAD-DATE: May 1, 2002 --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
