QUESTION: What is the state of relations between Algeria and Spain today? Aren’t you unhappy with Spain’s position on the Western Sahara conflict highlighted, for example, by its abstention in the two votes on resolutions this fall at the United Nations General Assembly?
ANSWER: Economic relations are excellent. Political relations are too, although our positions on the Western Sahara file diverge somewhat. We have always told our Spanish friends that they have everything to gain from assuming their moral and historical responsibility on this issue by actively contributing to re-establishing the Saharawi people in their legitimate right to democratically decide their destiny.
QUESTION: Spain and Algeria became very close (State visit by the President to Madrid, a presidential trip to Valencia) between 2001 and 2003 when Spanish-Moroccan relations were going through a bad patch. Do you regret the time of President José Maria Aznar?
ANSWER: President Aznar is a great statesman who has done much to build forward-looking relations with Algeria based on mutual respect and the promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation.
His successor, Mr. Zapatero, shows the same desire to develop bilateral cooperation.
That said, I have a lot of consideration and friendship for both of them.
QUESTION: What do you think Spain’s role should be in this dispute over its former colony?
ANSWER: I have just said that Spain has a moral and historical responsibility in this dossier. This is not a dispute as you say, but a serious problem of decolonization. This problem concerns the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. Algeria supports this cause as it has done everywhere in the world: for Belize, Brunei, Surinam, Timor, and other regions of the world where there was a problem of decolonization.
QUESTION: Morocco has just proposed an autonomy plan for Western Sahara. How does this approach inspire you?
ANSWER: No unilateral solution can be viable. Only the recognition of the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination is likely to solve the problem. This is the constantly reaffirmed position of the United Nations.
QUESTION: You are an ardent defender of Sahrawi self-determination, but, according to Moroccans and certain Algerian press, it has not always been so. Didn’t you propose the partition of the territory between an independent state and Morocco? Is this solution not realized?
ANSWER: The partition of the Sahara was made by Morocco with the Mauritania of the late President Mokhtar Ould Daddah. If I remember, it was called the Madrid Accords. There was no question then of the territorial integrity of Morocco. I have never proposed such a partition since I have constantly, and even before the abandonment of the Sahara by Spain, supported the right to self-determination of the Saharawi people.
QUESTION: Can we fear, if diplomacy continues to fail, a resumption of hostilities between the Polisario Front and Morocco?
ANSWER: This is a hypothesis which, in my opinion, cannot be ruled out, but the realization of which is not at all desired by us, who prefer the peaceful solution by the organization under the aegis of the UN of a self-determination referendum.
QUESTION: Will Algeria be able to wage war on Morocco one day?
ANSWER: I have said and repeated many times that in no case can the Western Sahara affair constitute a casus belli between Algeria and Morocco.
QUESTION: Is the dispute over Western Sahara the main obstacle to the establishment of the Arab Maghreb Union? Doesn’t the development of the Maghreb go through the revival of the AMU?
ANSWER: It is certain that until the problem of Western Sahara is resolved in a satisfactory and definitive manner, it will be difficult to progress in the direction of building a real and dynamic UMA which would contribute, there is no doubt, to the development of the Maghreb.
What do you particularly expect from brotherly Morocco and when will a definitive solution be found to the problem of the Sahara and a definitive settlement to the border disputes between Algeria and Morocco?
Let’s avoid confusion. There is not the slightest problem between Algeria and Morocco over Western Sahara. This problem which arises at present is supported by the UN and the parties concerned, the Polisario and Morocco. These two parties signed agreements in Houston under the aegis of Mr. James Baker and we are always committed to international legality and nothing can deflect us from it. While waiting for something new, both parties are asked to immediately apply the Houston agreements and UN resolutions. Algeria welcomes this process and will be the first to welcome the results that will sanction a free and fair referendum.
Concerning the borders, I would like to affirm that there is no problem either since the demarcation of the borders is defined and the related agreements have been ratified. The problems lie elsewhere. They are to be found in the coverage, even in the support given to terrorist groups, which is clearly reflected in the killings perpetrated this summer in Beni-Ounif. They are in the flow of quantities of drugs flowing into Algeria with the apparent complacency of the authorities concerned. Finally, they are to be sought in the absence of serious action tending to ensure a balance of interests in economic exchanges and commercial relations.
Even the establishment of the visa was a decision taken unilaterally by our Moroccan brothers while dozens of texts impregnated with the philosophy of Maghreb unity were signed.
There is no room for optimism about the reopening of borders until the issues posed are given serious consideration and addressed objectively and with great care.
Public opinion has been occupied for a long time, not without design, by the questions of Western Sahara and the borders, as well as by the media campaigns against Algeria. We are used to it and all this has no impact on Algeria and on the Algerian people. The reality is that until the last few years at least, the issues of Western Sahara and borders were no longer a problem at the bilateral level.
13- Can we fear, if diplomacy continues to fail, a resumption of hostilities between the Polisario Front and Morocco?
It is not in the nature of diplomacy to accept failure and I am certain that the two parties involved, Morocco and the Polisario Front, have not yet exhausted all the possibilities offered by negotiation and the advantage of being able to speak to each other directly, without preconditions, as requested by the United Nations Security Council, in order to find a lasting solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, in compliance with international legality and the imprescriptible right of the Saharawi people to freely choose their destiny.
These negotiations, which will soon enter their 4th round in Manhasset, must be accompanied by strict respect for the ceasefire established by the United Nations in 1991. I do not want to think of a resumption of hostilities between Morocco and the Polisario Front, a resumption which would represent a dangerous and dramatic development for our entire region. I must emphasize once again that the decolonization of the Western Sahara is not a casus belli between Algeria and Morocco. This decolonization is the exclusive responsibility of the United Nations and the Security Council.
Negotiation remains the only way to enable our region to find its serenity once and for all and to commit itself resolutely to the path of integration in order to be able to meet the multiple challenges of globalization.
