The chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), Mr. Khalihenna Ould Errachid, met Monday in Rabat with the President of The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Mr. Goran Lennmarker.

The Sahara "is not an issue of decolonization" and "has nothing to do with the right of peoples to self-determination," said Secretary-General of the Algerian Workers' Party, Louisa Hanoune, quoted Saturday by the Algerian daily "Le Jour d'Algérie".  Warning against foreign interference in the region, Mrs. Hanoune, called at a press conference, on Friday, following a meeting of the party central committee, for dialog between the parties concerned "starting with our country [Algeria]," to find a solution to the 32-year conflict between the north African country and the Algerian-backed separatists of Polisario who lay claims to Morocco's Southern Provinces.

The first regular session of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) for the year 2008, will take place in Rabat on May 2-3, announced Thursday CORCAS chairman. This session, held in accordance with Article 7 of the Dahir N 1.06.81, Safar, 24 1427, corresponding to March 25, 2006 relating to the CORCAS and Article 27 of the Rules of Procedure, according to a press release of CORCAS Will be devoted to the examination of two main points, namely "the latest developments on the issue of our territorial integrity" and "the pursuit of the development process in the health sector in the kingdom’s southern regions".

 The assessment the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Peter van Walsum, submitted to the Security Council, "is as important" as the report of Ban Ki-moon, according to Spain's ambassador to the United Nations, Juan Antonio Yanes-Barnuevo. The Spanish diplomat deemed that "the most important is to know how to give new impetus to the (ongoing) negotiations," in an allusion to the UN-led talks on the Sahara. So far, four rounds were held in Manhasset (New York) in a bid to settle the 32-year Sahara dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatist movement of Polisario.

Sheikhs and notables from Saharan tribes in the region of Guelmim-Smara expressed their satisfaction following statements by the personal representative of UN Secretary-General, Mr. Peter Van Walsum who submitted his report on the Sahara issue to the Security Council in which he says that the independence of the Sahara "is not a realistic option". In a statement to the MAP, M. Mohamed Ould Sid Bashir, a member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), said that although it is not a surprise, Walsum’s statements go in the right direction, adopted by major world powers.