Zerhouni rejects Moroccan accusations

Algerian Interior Minister Nourredine Yazid Zerhouni Monday said “no one is allowed to accuse Algeria of attempting to balkanize the Maghreb”, in response to Morocco’s accusations over the Western Sahara issue.

• “History proves that such accusations are baseless,” Zerhouni told reporters on the sidelines of an official ceremony.
• “We have always been dreaming of building a big Arab Maghreb and we have been struggling for this ideal,” he added.
• In a televised broadcast to mark the 33rd anniversary of the “Green Walk”, Morocco’s king Mohammed IV Thursday criticized the “official position” of Algeria, a country he said had blocked attempts to resolve the crisis.
• “Algeria is doing everything possible to prolong the crisis and this can lead to further balkanization of the Maghreb and Sahel regions,” he said.
• He added that Algeria had also refused to normalise relations with Morocco and open their common borders, closed since 1994.
• The Algerian minister believes “The real question to be asked is: which Maghreb we want to build,” he says
• “Is it a matter of building a Maghreb in the service of its people or it is a matter of obscure objectives?”
• Morocco says autonomy is the only solution for the problem in the Western Sahara while the Polisario Front insists that the Sahrawi people must determine their independence via a referendum.
• Algeria closed its borders with Morocco in 1994 after Rabat accused it of being involved in an attack on a hotel in Marrakech.