By William Maclean
ALGIERS, Aug 7 (Reuters) - U.S. support is encouraging Moroccan "intransigence" in peace talks with the Polisario Front over Western Sahara, complicating the search for a solution, an official of the independence movement said on Tuesday.
Polisario negotiator Mohammed Khadad said a July 11 statement in which the United States threw its weight strongly behind the kingdom made negotiations intended to solve Africa's oldest territorial dispute less likely to succeed.
"Unfortunately the American position doesn't help to advance give-and-take negotiations," he told Reuters days before the scheduled Aug. 10 resumption of negotiations near New York.
"It comforts Morocco in its intransigence. Instead of having a subtle policy to encourage the parties to go towards negotiations, it seeks to support the argument of one of the parties. In the Maghreb context, that complicates things."
In a statement read after a Security Council debate, a U.S. envoy on July 11 welcomed "Morocco's serious and credible efforts to move the process forward".
The statement praised as "realistic" Rabat's plan for self-rule for the resource-rich former Spanish colony under Moroccan sovereignty and made no mention of Polisario's proposal for a referendum with independence as one option.
RIVAL PLANS
Washington had praised Morocco's plan before but the public delivery of the statement outside the Security Council chamber lent it considerable extra force. France also backs Rabat.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, which has major phosphate deposits, rich fishing grounds and, potentially, oil, after Spain withdrew in 1975.
Morocco and Polisario, Sahara's Algeria-based independence movement, submitted rival peace plans to the United Nations in April. They held an opening round of U.N.-mediated negotiations near New York last month and will meet again there in August.
Khadad said a July 30 speech by Morocco's King Mohammed was evidence of what he called Moroccan intransigence.
In it, the King said: "Morocco ... remains continually well disposed to negotiate, but only over autonomy, the whole autonomy and nothing but autonomy". He added autonomy could be envisaged "only within the framework of Morocco's sovereignty".
Khadad said these comments showed a unilateral approach: "When Morocco says there's only autonomy and nothing but autonomy, that's no longer a negotiation, that's an imposition."
"That means that the problem of sovereignty, which is the basic problem, is decided unilaterally by Morocco and therefore there is nothing to negotiate."
No country recognizes Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the United States is now impatient for a deal it hopes will bring more cooperation between North African states and help combat terrorist groups in the regions bordering the Sahara.
Khadad said: "I think that when you negotiate, each side has its position, then each takes a step towards the other. We are ready to negotiate, not to accept accomplished facts or dictates. .. .Morocco should show flexibility."
