Rabat - Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Salaheddine Mezouar, called on Algeria to fully shoulder its responsibilities in searching for a solution to the Western Sahara issue, similarly to Algiers' involvement in this regional dispute.
"Algeria should fully shoulder its responsibilities in searching for a solution similarly to its military, political and diplomatic involvement in the outbreak and persistence of the regional dispute over the Sahara," Mezouar told Moroccan newspaper Aujourd'hui le Maroc.
He also stressed the need for Algeria to "understand that the exercise by the Kingdom of its sovereignty in the Moroccan Sahara is irreversible."
Underlining the direct involvement of Algeria in this dispute notably through "generous and sustained financial, military and logistical support to the Polisario, Mezouar said Algeria's positions and behavior since the outbreak of the Moroccan Sahara issue, "have made it, indeed, the main party in this regional dispute."
Responding to recent press statements of Algeria's Foreign Minister, in which the Algerian diplomat reportedly said "normalization of Moroccan-Algerian relations depend on the respect of Algeria's position over the Moroccan Sahara," Mezouar said he was "disappointed but not surprised."
He added that Algeria places "its opposition to the Kingdom's territorial integrity over all other considerations."