Sahara is Moroccan and Algeria should stop funding Polisario- Senior Algerian politician

Ammar Saadani, former Secretary General of Algeria’s all-powerful political party, the FLN, whose leaders ruled the country since independence, unveiled the disenchantment among Algeria’s political elite with regards to Algiers hostile policy towards Morocco’s territorial integrity, saying that the Sahara has always been Moroccan and that Algeria should stop dilapidating its resources on the separatist polisario militias.

“In reality, from a historical perspective the Sahara is nothing but Moroccan. It was taken from Morocco at the Berlin congress and I think that Algeria has spent for fifty years colossal amounts to the so-called Polisario, an organization that has never managed to get out of the deadlock,” Ammar Saadani former FLN Secretary General told Algeria’s TSA news outlet.

He spoke in favor of closer ties between Morocco and Algeria, pointing out that the current context is propitious for building bridges between the two neighboring states, the two demographic heavyweights of the Maghreb.

The recent developments in the region with democratic elections in Tunisia and upheavals in Algeria and Libya are conducive for relaunching the Maghreb union project, he said.

“I think that the Sahara issue should be settled once and for all and that Algeria and Morocco should open their borders and normalize ties,” Saadani said.

He deplored the lavish spending by the Algerian regime on the Polisario, saying that leaders of the Polisario militias have been using Algerian tax-payer’s money to enjoy stays at luxurious hotels for five decades.

“That money should have been invested in Souk Ahras, El Bayadh, Tamanrasset and other cities,” he said citing marginalized areas in Algeria’s south.

In 2015, Saadani had called on Algeria to abstain from interfering in the Sahara issue and leave it to the UN.