Morocco has accused Algeria and the Polisario Front of blocking the informal negotiations that should lead to the fifth round of talks on Western Sahara, backed by the UN since June 2007.
Rabat’s response to the current stalemate led to a meeting between Moroccan Foreign Minister Taib Fassi Fihri and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday night in New York.
Scheduled for last November, the second round of informal negotiations with the Polisario Front was postponed because of “Algeria and Polisario’s attitude and manoeuvres,” said the head of the Moroccan diplomacy, whose statements were reported by the state-owned media in the country.
These “parties refuse to reach this political solution and prefer this impasse,” Taib Fassi Fihri said while reiterating “the total commitment of Morocco to achieve a political solution based on resolutions of the Security Council and calling for extensive negotiations and a realistic approach. ”
Rabat argues that its autonomy plan proposed in April 2007 is the “only solution” to ending the 34-year Western Sahara crisis.
The Moroccan move came after Washington and Paris called on Wednesday for the resumption of negotiations.
The Polisario Front claims a self-determination referendum from its bases in south-west Algeria.
An UN-backed negotiation process was initiated in June 2007 on US soil, but it struggles to find a common ground between the two main protagonists, Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
The fifth round of negotiations should be set by mutual agreement between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
In August, Morocco and the Polisario Front held a first round of informal talks in Austria under the aegis of UN mediator Christopher Ross.
However, a case involving one Ms. Haidar has likely contributed to the current stumbling block.
Ms. Haidar, born in Western Sahara, was expelled on 14 November from Morocco for refusing to state her Moroccan nationality at the airport in Laayoune, the main town in the Sahara region, under Sherifian sovereignty since late 1975.
“She must admit her mistake and apologize for insulting the symbols of the nation,” Rabat claims.
Haidar (43) “refused to undergo the usual police formalities and denied her Moroccan nationality, before being deported to the Canary Islands. She is currently observing a hunger strike, the Moroccan diplomacy said.
Spain had even formally requested that the Sahrawi dissident be allowed to return but Morocco has rejected the demand.
It accuses Algeria of using human rights and of “using all means at its disposal” to support elements which are subservient to it in the Sahara.
Morocco has even accused Algeria of preventing thousands of its nationals from returning to the country by “confining” them in Tindouf camps under Polisario control.
Source African Press Agency
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