Sahara: Christopher Ross says to be ...optimistic...

RABAT- The UN envoy for Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher Ross, said Monday was "optimistic" about the organization of a "first informal meeting between Morocco and the Polisario Front to discuss the future of this territory.

•     “I am optimistic about this first informal meeting, which I am sure, will make a significant contribution to the search for a resolution of the conflict that has already lasted too long and interferes with the work to be done at the regional integration,” said Ross after a meeting with Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Taib Fassi Fihri.
  
      According to the personal envoy of UN Secretary-General, “this second tour of the region is to the application of the latest Security Council resolution, taking into account the outcome of the negotiations so far and the preparation of informal meetings which the Security Council endorsed the holding in preparation for a fifth round of negotiations.”
  
      Questioned by AFP, an informed source said that the date and place of this “first meeting” were not yet set.
  
      After discussions in Algiers, Tindouf and Nouakchott, Christopher Ross arrived Saturday afternoon in Morocco, as part of a tour in the Maghreb.
  
      Mr Ross had done in February a first tour of the region in which it was found that the conditions for a resumption of direct talks in Manhasset, a suburb of New York, were not met.
  
      Four rounds of negotiations in Manhasset have already occurred but have not brought the points of view. Former Spanish colony, Western Sahara was annexed in 1975 by Morocco, which offers a wide autonomy under its sovereignty, not independence.
  
      The Polisario Front calls for its share of self-determination referendum in which independence would be one of the options.
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• Ennaharonline/ M. O.