Wikileaks: “President Bouteflika's anger at blatant dishonesty of Spain's ruling socialists”

Since 2004, dozens of American embassy cables from Madrid, Rabat and Paris show the Spanish Socialist government had been secretly supporting Morocco in talks to regain control of the Western Sahara. PM Zapatero suggested the creation of an autonomous region along the lines of Catalonia in Spain, according to latest revelations by whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

• This greatly angered Algerian President Bouteflika who strongly condemned the unexpected Spanish government’s stance and the 20% price rise in Algerian gas exported to Spain was widely seen as a retaliation.
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• President Bouteflika flatly refused to speak on behalf of the Sahraouis themselves about their legitimate demands for Western Sahara’s accession to independence, and left the matter to the Sahraoui leaders while stressing Algeria’s role as sole observer in the dispute opposing Morocco and the Polisario Front.
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• “Algeria sticks to international legality and to the relevant UN resolutions for a just and lasting settlement of the Western Sahara issue”, President Bouteflika hammered.
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• The cables also showed that Spanish diplomats criticized former President Chirac of France for being more pro-Moroccan than the Moroccans themselves.
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