Medelci insists on Algeria’s position over Western Sahara

Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci Wednesday said Algeria gives “big importance” to peace in the Arab Maghreb, in response to Morocco’s accusations over the Western Sahara issue.

• “We will not make any initiative neither will we make statements in contradiction with Algeria’s deep conviction, which is peace in the region,” Medelci told Algeria News Agency (APS) in Ankara, Turkey.
• In a televised broadcast to mark the 33rd anniversary of the “Green Walk”, Morocco’s king Mohammed IV criticized the “official position” of Algeria, a country he said had blocked attempts to resolve the crisis in Western Sahara.
• “Algeria is doing everything possible to prolong the crisis and this can lead to further balkanization of the Maghreb and Sahel regions,” he said.
• “Algeria as an observer country in Manhasset negotiations will make all efforts to boost talks and make them successful,” Medelci said on the sidelines of his visit to Turkey.
• He also said “Algeria firmly believes a permanent settlement of the problem lies in a fair and just solution which preserves the right of Sahraoui people to self-determination.”
•  Earlier on Monday, Algerian Interior Minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni rejected the Moroccan accusations saying “no one is allowed to accuse Algeria of attempting to balkanize the Maghreb.”
• Morocco says autonomy is the only solution for the problem in Western Sahara while the Polisario Front insists that the Sahraoui people have to determine their own independence via a referendum.
• Algeria closed its borders with Morocco in 1994 after Rabat accused its neighbor of involvement in an attack that targeted a hotel in Marrakech.