The statement was made, here on Thursday, at the end of a meeting between the Paraguayan official and visiting Moroccan Foreign minister Mohamed Benaissa, who conveyed a message from king Mohammed VI to Paraguay's President Nicanor Duarte Frutos.
 
    Castiglioni reiterated his country's backing to Morocco within the framework of the United Nations "through its favorable vote to this initiative," noting that "it is the best way through which Paraguay can support the final solution" to the dispute, which broke out in 1976 when the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists laid claims to the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco a year earlier under the Madrid Accord.
 
    The Paraguayan official underlined that "Paraguay adopts a firm stance" regarding this issue and deemed that "through supporting this initiative of final solution, it will provide an important contribution to world peace and region stability."
 
    Benaissa, who arrived Wednesday night in Asuncion to explain the broad lines of the autonomy project to Paraguayan officials, had also met Speaker of Paraguayan Congress, Senator Enrique Gonzales Quintana, First vice-Speaker of the lower house, Carlos Nelson Chavez Arguello and vice-minister of Foreign affaires, Fernando Gonzales.