Regarding a proposal that a referendum be held to determine the disposition of the disputed territories, the senior government official said it was not a practical solution. Furthermore, he said, using a referendum to dampen internal opposition would simply mean justifying civil war. So commented Moroccan High Commissioner for Planning, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, in his lengthy comments about his country's conflict with Algeria over the Sahara region.
In an interview with Moroccan news agency, MAP, earlier this month, the Moroccan official further criticized South Africa for recognizing the Sahrawi (i.e., Saharan) Republic, or SADR, which, he claimed, was "created under the supervision of Algerian military forces."
The SADR, Alami said, "has none of the characteristics" of a state, yet South Africa, "over 15 hours away by plane from the concerned region, adopts an easy solution in a complicated conflict - without examining the risks it has for peace in North Africa."
As for Algeria itself, which Morocco has accused of supporting what it calls Sahrawi terrorists, the Polisario, the Moroccan official warned, "Algeria, a country that is rich with petrol-dollars and that is excessively arming itself, may be tempted by an adventure that may destabilize one of the rare regions in the African and Arab world that has remained relatively peaceful." Algeria, he said, is suffering from "claustrophobia", which leads it to seek access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Sahara.
But this is not all, the official explained, "even before Morocco retrieved its Sahrawi provinces, Algeria constantly organized, armed and trained Moroccan opposition groups and helped them infiltrate into Morocco to destabilize the country under the cloak of revolutionary activism." Now, after Morocco's "Sahrawi provinces" have been "retrieved", the Algerians are using the non-Arab Saharan tribesmen to confront Morocco, Alami charged.
Still seeking "brotherly relations" with Algeria, Morocco is "facing the subversive actions from the Algerian territory and is continuing to defend its territorial integrity...." High Commissioner Alami stated.
The Moroccan press had preceded Alami's historical-political overview this month with an apparently coordinated set of articles in multiple newspapers questioning what it called Algeria's arms build-up.
"What is Algiers Up To?" asked L'Opinion, saying that Algeria's "excessive armament process at a sustained pace... cannot be justified." The newspaper specifically questioned Algeria's purchases of "offensive weapons rather than defensive arms, especially as no country in the region poses a threat to Algeria." Continuing the theme, the paper editorialized: "This armament race is even more suspicious because of the huge amounts devoted to this purpose while the Algerian people, that is enduring poverty, calls for the improvement of its situation...."
The Al Alam newspaper even called Algeria's arms build-up part "hegemonic and expansionist aspirations," it pointed out.
In agreement with this assessment was Aujourd'hui le Maroc, which said, "This is not an excessively paranoid idea...." It further warned, "Morocco's pacifism has limits."
More bluntly, the editor of Maroc-Hebdo International wrote, "Moroccans may get fed up of being threatened with dislodging their Sahrawi provinces by a malevolent neighbor."
As if in response to questions regarding their "arms race", Algerian newspapers reported in the days following the Moroccan press reports that a Moroccan detachment was captured in Algerian territory bordering the Sahara.
In an interview with Moroccan news agency, MAP, earlier this month, the Moroccan official further criticized South Africa for recognizing the Sahrawi (i.e., Saharan) Republic, or SADR, which, he claimed, was "created under the supervision of Algerian military forces."
The SADR, Alami said, "has none of the characteristics" of a state, yet South Africa, "over 15 hours away by plane from the concerned region, adopts an easy solution in a complicated conflict - without examining the risks it has for peace in North Africa."
As for Algeria itself, which Morocco has accused of supporting what it calls Sahrawi terrorists, the Polisario, the Moroccan official warned, "Algeria, a country that is rich with petrol-dollars and that is excessively arming itself, may be tempted by an adventure that may destabilize one of the rare regions in the African and Arab world that has remained relatively peaceful." Algeria, he said, is suffering from "claustrophobia", which leads it to seek access to the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Sahara.
But this is not all, the official explained, "even before Morocco retrieved its Sahrawi provinces, Algeria constantly organized, armed and trained Moroccan opposition groups and helped them infiltrate into Morocco to destabilize the country under the cloak of revolutionary activism." Now, after Morocco's "Sahrawi provinces" have been "retrieved", the Algerians are using the non-Arab Saharan tribesmen to confront Morocco, Alami charged.
Still seeking "brotherly relations" with Algeria, Morocco is "facing the subversive actions from the Algerian territory and is continuing to defend its territorial integrity...." High Commissioner Alami stated.
The Moroccan press had preceded Alami's historical-political overview this month with an apparently coordinated set of articles in multiple newspapers questioning what it called Algeria's arms build-up.
"What is Algiers Up To?" asked L'Opinion, saying that Algeria's "excessive armament process at a sustained pace... cannot be justified." The newspaper specifically questioned Algeria's purchases of "offensive weapons rather than defensive arms, especially as no country in the region poses a threat to Algeria." Continuing the theme, the paper editorialized: "This armament race is even more suspicious because of the huge amounts devoted to this purpose while the Algerian people, that is enduring poverty, calls for the improvement of its situation...."
The Al Alam newspaper even called Algeria's arms build-up part "hegemonic and expansionist aspirations," it pointed out.
In agreement with this assessment was Aujourd'hui le Maroc, which said, "This is not an excessively paranoid idea...." It further warned, "Morocco's pacifism has limits."
More bluntly, the editor of Maroc-Hebdo International wrote, "Moroccans may get fed up of being threatened with dislodging their Sahrawi provinces by a malevolent neighbor."
As if in response to questions regarding their "arms race", Algerian newspapers reported in the days following the Moroccan press reports that a Moroccan detachment was captured in Algerian territory bordering the Sahara.