Majority in US Senate Join Majority in US House in Supporting US Policy for Resolving the Western Sahara Conflict

Letter from 54 Senators shows strong bipartisan backing in US Congress for a negotiated settlement of the conflict based on broad autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty; to remove 'major obstacle to stability,' fight terrorist threat in North Africa

WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, a bipartisan majority of Members of the US Senate -- led by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), the Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- sent a letter to Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton supporting US policy on Western Sahara, expressing concern over growing regional instability and the rising threat from terrorists in North Africa.  The lawmakers urged "more sustained American attention to resolve one of the region's most pressing political issues, the Western Sahara" to "remove the major obstacle to stability in the region."

Today's US Senate letter voices strong support for the US policy backing a solution to the conflict based on "broad autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty" and calls the Moroccan compromise autonomy proposal "serious and credible." The letter notes it has been the "bipartisan US policy" of three successive Administrations (Clinton, Bush, and Obama) "to support a resolution of this conflict based on this formula."  In April 2009, 233 members of the US House of Representatives -- a bipartisan majority -- sent a letter [http://moroccanamericanpolicy.com/wsdocs/233letter.pdf] to President Obama urging support for Morocco's compromise autonomy plan, expressing the concern that the ongoing Western Sahara conflict was thwarting efforts to combat increased terrorism and regional instability.

** For full text of the Senate letter and list of signers, please visit: [www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org/SenateLetter.pdf]

Among the Senate letter's signers are: the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Appropriations committee, Finance Committee, and Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs, and Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chair Sen. Byron Dorgan, (D-ND), and Assistant Minority Leader Sen. John Kyl, (R-AZ).

The Senate letter calls attention to a report, "Why the Maghreb Matters," issued March 31, 2009 by a panel including former Sec. of State Madeleine Albright, former Amb. Stuart Eizenstat, and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Wesley Clark, arguing "the US must work diligently with its friends to resolve the stalemate over the Western Sahara" to protect US security interests and promote regional peace and prosperity.  In January a report by the International Center for Terrorism Studies, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, detailed how attacks by al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups in North Africa have increased more than 550% since 9/11.

The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.  For more, please visit www.moroccanamericanpolicy.org

This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco.  Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

SOURCE Moroccan American Center for Policy