Solving Sahara Issue

"A civilization rich in types and models unchanged for centuries, ... ideas and customs, moral and physical aspects of mankind that are eternal simply because they have never changed .... But that it has survived until our own times, that we can see it, we can touch it, we can mix with its people, is a miracle that never ceases to astonish." (Andre Chevrillon, Marrakech dans le palmes, Paris, 1920).

Moroccan Cities

Home

Moroccan News

Madrid - Spain has called on the international community to focus efforts on a negotiated solution to settle the 33-year-old Sahara issue within the framework of the United Nations, Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was receiving on Tuesday the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Sahara, Christopher Ross, said his country backs a political solution that is just, lasting and acceptable by all parties, within the framework of the United Nations Security Council resolutions.

A statement of the Spanish Foreign Ministry said that Moratinos also expressed Spain's support to Ross's mission, voicing satisfaction with the active role the UN diplomat is playing since his appointment in January 2009, Ross informed the Spanish official about the contacts he had while touring the region to relaunch the Manhasset negotiations process that started in June 2007.

The two officials stressed the importance of stability and socio-economic development in the Maghreb to promote a more prosperous regional space, The Maghreb is a regional union that gathers Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia and Libya, but that was deadlocked because of Algeria's support to the Polisario separatist movement that claims Morocco's Southern Provinces, the Sahara.

Ross arrived Tuesday in Madrid, part of a tour in the region that had led him to Algiers, Tindouf, Nouakchott and Rabat.