Former Mauritanian Official Condemns Polisario, Warns Against New Maghreb State

"It is absurd to subdivide what has been divided, especially when one realizes the damage caused by this state of affairs," said Mohamed Ould Lamine in an interview with the weekly Al Ayyam, sweeping aside the idea of creating a new state in a region with delimited, known and recognized borders by the international community. He recommends that Arab elites "take advantage of political advances and openings offered by the internet to promote a culture of brotherhood, in a context of demographic change for the Arab peoples".

"The blockade of the Guerguerat area, a crossing point between Morocco and Mauritania, has not only disrupted trade between the two countries, but also between Mauritania and Portugal," continued the politician, who urges common action in calm and serenity to consolidate a common heritage of wealth.

For the very active writer and intellectual, "the crisis shaking the region, particularly around the borders of the Sahara, is due to the lack of trust between Morocco and Algeria since the first sand war" born of the behavior of the French colonizer, who nurtured covetousness in the Sahara before the independence of Algeria.

Since Sahrawi cities have been built, with significantly improved living conditions for the populations, thanks to Moroccan human and material investment and that democracy has made progress in Algeria, negotiations have a chance to prosper between parties who do not necessarily share the same positions.