Dialog is the only way to settle Sahara dispute, Italian official

Visiting Italian secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Vittorio Craxi, stressed, here Monday, that dialog is the only way to settle the Sahara dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatists "Polisario", In a statement to the press following a meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister, Taieb Fassi Fihri, the Italian official said his country "can play an important role" in this regard, "because we have many friends in the Maghreb countries" (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania). He called on the international community to get substantially involved in this dossier in order to achieve a final solution to the 32-year-old dispute. A former Spanish colony, the Sahara was ceded to Morocco in 1975, but Polisario started claiming the independence of the territory a year later. Morocco and Polisario held two rounds of UN-sponsored talks in Manhasset (outskirts of New York) in June and August, in implementation the UN Security Council Resolution 1754. A third round is expected, yet no date or venue has been set so far. Morocco proposed substantial autonomy to the Sahara region in a bid to bring the conflict to an end. The initiative was widely hailed as “serious” and “credible”.