As reported several times in this section on Arutz Sheva, there is an ongoing conflict between Morocco and Algeria over the Sahara desert and its indigenous people. The Sahrawi people, as the locals are called, even have their own terrorist group - the Polisario. They are, with the alleged help of Algeria, demanding an independent Sahrawi state between Morocco and Algeria. Morocco, for its part, has consistently refused to violate its territorial integrity by ceding the Sahara to the Sahrawis, or sharing it with Algeria.
This situation made an interview with a former Algerian defense minister, Khaled Nizzar, with the Moroccan weekly La Gazette du Maroc of particular interest. Nizzar told the Gazette that he is opposed to the creation of a Sahrawi state, saying Algeria “does not need a new state at its borders.” He further insisted that his country is no longer seeking to partition the Sahara, but rather to discuss a peaceful solution allowing Sahrawis to find their national expression “within the framework of an entente.” According to Nizzar, the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA) “will undoubtedly help resolve the Sahara issue.”
As to the role of the Algerian army in the Sahara issue, which has mainly consisted of preventing a resolution, the retired general said that the army does not act independent of the political echelon. “If the President of the [Algerian] republic can't, or rather, does not want to break the deadlock,” he stated, “the army can't object to that.”
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
This situation made an interview with a former Algerian defense minister, Khaled Nizzar, with the Moroccan weekly La Gazette du Maroc of particular interest. Nizzar told the Gazette that he is opposed to the creation of a Sahrawi state, saying Algeria “does not need a new state at its borders.” He further insisted that his country is no longer seeking to partition the Sahara, but rather to discuss a peaceful solution allowing Sahrawis to find their national expression “within the framework of an entente.” According to Nizzar, the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA) “will undoubtedly help resolve the Sahara issue.”
As to the role of the Algerian army in the Sahara issue, which has mainly consisted of preventing a resolution, the retired general said that the army does not act independent of the political echelon. “If the President of the [Algerian] republic can't, or rather, does not want to break the deadlock,” he stated, “the army can't object to that.”
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.