The statement came on the sidelines of the Council's extraordinary session, held here Friday, to consider latest developments on the territorial integrity of Morocco following the first round of direct talks over the Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario held in Manhasset (New York outskirts). 

    "I call them (the Polisario) as I did in New York to recognize that the settlement of political issues goes through compromise and consensus," he went on to say.

   The Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is subject of a dispute between Morocco and an Algerian-backed Polisario separatists, who lay claims to the Moroccan southern provinces retrieved by the north African kingdom from the Spanish rule in 1976 under the Madrid Accords.

    Touching on the council's extraordinary session, Mr.Ould Errachid deemed "constructive," discussions among the Council members, noting that the latter expressed "their support" to the manner these talks were carried out and to the stance of the Moroccan delegation, which took part to these talks.

    A solution to the Sahara issue can only be achieved through the implementation of Morocco’s autonomy initiative “as a final, just and total solution that is accepted by all the parties and considered by the International law as being a real form of self-determination,” he concluded.  

    On June 18-19, Morocco and the Polisario launched the first round of talks on the Sahara in Manhasset, in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution 1754 that called on the parties to engage in direct negotiations in "good faith and without preconditions." A second round is slated for the second week of August.