The ministry denied in a statement the "groundless allegations" of the weekly, which it said are "contrary to the rules and ethics of serious and responsible journalism," adding that such statements "harm our national decisive cause (the Sahara affair) (...) and strongly denounces these lies, whose publication coincides with a propaganda campaign led by the enemies of the territorial integrity of Morocco."
Following the publication of the article, the prosecutor of the Rabat first instance court ordered the police to interrogate the director of the paper. It said in a statement that the article contains "false information whose slandering aim is to harm our country and spread, through the press, groundless information."
The Sahara issue opposes Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists who lay claims to Morocco's Southern Provinces. These provinces, known as the Sahara, were under Spanish rule until 1975 when Spain ceded them to Morocco under the Madrid Accord.
On June 18-19, Morocco and the Polisario met in New York suburbs to launch direct negotiations, under U.N. auspices, as called for by the U.N. Security Council in its resolution No. 1754 issued on April 30.
The two parties agreed to meet on August 10 for a second round of talks. Morocco proposes to offer the Sahara a substantial autonomy under its sovereignty and territorial integrity.