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SMARA, Western Sahara, Dec 17 (Reuters) - A threat by Western Sahara's independence movement to revive an armed struggle against Morocco is empty as the group is incapable of waging a new war, a Moroccan official said on Monday.
Peacekeepers have watched over Western Sahara since 1991 when the U.N. brokered a ceasefire to end a guerrilla war between independence movement Polisario Front and Morocco, which annexed the resource-rich northwest African territory in 1975.
The ceasefire terms included holding a referendum to let the inhabitants decide their future but the vote never happened.
Polisario's congress is due to vote on whether to return to arms on Tuesday and officials say its national secretariat has recommended preparing for a resumption of war while pursuing U.N.-backed peace talks at the same time.
"Brandishing the spectre of war will come back to haunt them. They don't have the means, unless they commit suicide," said Khalihenna Ould Errachid, who heads a council set up by Morocco to propose a way to govern the territory under its rule.
Polisario is widely seen as the weaker party militarily and most observers say it is unlikely to resume war soon.
The movement is still holding out for the long-delayed referendum, with full independence as one option. Rabat says the plebiscite would be impossible to organise and has offered only limited autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
Rabat says most Sahrawis are unhappy with Polisario speaking in their name and are ready to accept limited autonomy.
"Morocco has never been so glorious as it is today at the national and diplomatic level. The international community supports Morocco," Errachid said. "Polisario just wants to muddy the waters."
No country officially recognises Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the U.N. Security Council is divided over a solution, with some non-aligned states supporting Polisario but France and the United States backing Morocco.
The protagonists in what has become Africa's oldest territorial dispute are due to meet on Jan. 7-9 for the third round of U.N. brokered peace talks in less than a year but a compromise appears remote.
As the dispute drags on, tens of thousands of Sahrawis remain living in windswept camps inside the Algerian border, dependent on aid and cut off from relatives living in the Moroccan-held zone bordering the Atlantic.
"The Moroccan state wants to correct the faults of the past in proposing autonomy as it had neglected and marginalised the region in the past. We have an opportunity to be seized," said Errachid.
Polisario's proposal to resume a war footing is "a way of bidding up the situation for foreign consumption", he added.
Errachid was speaking in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara at a gathering of the Royal Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), a grouping of Saharan personalities advising Rabat on what form its plan for limited autonomy should take.
Reuters By Zakia Abdennebi
(Reporting by Zakia Abdennebi, Writing by Tom Pfeiffer, Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
Peacekeepers have watched over Western Sahara since 1991 when the U.N. brokered a ceasefire to end a guerrilla war between independence movement Polisario Front and Morocco, which annexed the resource-rich northwest African territory in 1975.
The ceasefire terms included holding a referendum to let the inhabitants decide their future but the vote never happened.
Polisario's congress is due to vote on whether to return to arms on Tuesday and officials say its national secretariat has recommended preparing for a resumption of war while pursuing U.N.-backed peace talks at the same time.
"Brandishing the spectre of war will come back to haunt them. They don't have the means, unless they commit suicide," said Khalihenna Ould Errachid, who heads a council set up by Morocco to propose a way to govern the territory under its rule.
Polisario is widely seen as the weaker party militarily and most observers say it is unlikely to resume war soon.
The movement is still holding out for the long-delayed referendum, with full independence as one option. Rabat says the plebiscite would be impossible to organise and has offered only limited autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
Rabat says most Sahrawis are unhappy with Polisario speaking in their name and are ready to accept limited autonomy.
"Morocco has never been so glorious as it is today at the national and diplomatic level. The international community supports Morocco," Errachid said. "Polisario just wants to muddy the waters."
No country officially recognises Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the U.N. Security Council is divided over a solution, with some non-aligned states supporting Polisario but France and the United States backing Morocco.
The protagonists in what has become Africa's oldest territorial dispute are due to meet on Jan. 7-9 for the third round of U.N. brokered peace talks in less than a year but a compromise appears remote.
As the dispute drags on, tens of thousands of Sahrawis remain living in windswept camps inside the Algerian border, dependent on aid and cut off from relatives living in the Moroccan-held zone bordering the Atlantic.
"The Moroccan state wants to correct the faults of the past in proposing autonomy as it had neglected and marginalised the region in the past. We have an opportunity to be seized," said Errachid.
Polisario's proposal to resume a war footing is "a way of bidding up the situation for foreign consumption", he added.
Errachid was speaking in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara at a gathering of the Royal Consultative Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), a grouping of Saharan personalities advising Rabat on what form its plan for limited autonomy should take.
Reuters By Zakia Abdennebi
(Reporting by Zakia Abdennebi, Writing by Tom Pfeiffer, Editing by Ibon Villelabeitia)
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