Algeria backs self-determination in Western Sahara, says Messahel

Algerian Minister Delegate for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel said Algeria insists on self-determination principle for the people of Western Sahara in accordance with UN resolutions.

•  “Algeria remains attached to self-determination principle and has always been for finding a solution in Western Sahara under the sponsorship of the United Nations,” Messahel told an Algerian state radio Thursday in response to Moroccan Prime Minister’s accusations over the issue.
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• He added that he hopes talks will resume so that the UN Security Council’s resolutions would be implemented, “especially the self-determination principle.”
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• The Polisario independence movement and Morocco have held four rounds of fruitless UN-sponsored talks in New York on the issue since June 2007.
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• Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi Thursday accused Algerian government of “hindering the construction of the Maghreb.”
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• He said Algeria confiscates the liberty of “Saharawi refugees in Tindouf camps (south-east of Algeria).”
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• Tens of thousands Saharawis who fled Western Sahara live in refugee camps in Tindouf across the border between Algeria and Morocco.
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• Morocco says autonomy is the only solution for the problem in the Western Sahara while the Polisario Front insists that the Saharawi people must determine their independence via a referendum.
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• Earlier in November Algerian Interior Minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni rejected Moroccan king’s accusations saying “no one is allowed to accuse Algeria of attempting to balkanize the Maghreb.”
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• “We have always been dreaming of building a big Arab Maghreb and we have been struggling for this ideal,” he said.