Rabat, April 12 -- Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has said that closed-door negotiations on the Western Sahara dossier are more in favor of Morocco than the settlement brokers would like to admit. The statement is a challenge to the ongoing UN-led process, which the UN has placed under its traditional banner of neutrality and mutually agreed upon terms.

In an interview with Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan, Aziz suggested that the most crucial deal brokers for Western Sahara would not like to see a Polisario-governed state in Western Sahara. Mauritania has recognized the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic..

"The West, Europe and the US, do not want another state geographically separating Morocco and M...