Visiting Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo reiterated, Wednesday in Rabat, his country's support for a "peaceful, negotiated solution" to the Sahara issue.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed the new Special Representative of the MINURSO, Wolfgang Weisbrod-Weber of Germany, to replace Hany Abdel-Aziz of Egypt, who completed his assignment on 30 April, said the U.N. Spokesperson Martin Nesirky.

“Polisario involvement in abduction acts reveals to the world the true face" of the separatist group which appears to be a "liberation movement," said Jeremy Keenan Thursday in London, who is an international expert of the Sahel and North Africa.

The EU-Morocco Friendship Group at the European Parliament (EP) "supports" the decision by the Kingdom to withdraw confidence in the personal envoy of UN Secretary General for the Sahara, Christopher Ross, said Wednesday in Brussels, its president Gilles Pargneaux.

The Moroccan autonomy initiative is a suitable framework for any discussion on natural resource management in the Sahara, stressed Monday in Geneva several experts at an international seminar on the "management of natural resources under autonomy statutes" .