FRONTIER DISPUTE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30269, 23 October 1963, Page 13

FRONTIER DISPUTE

No Early Accord Expected (N2. Press Anoctatiow—Copyright) ALGIERS, October 22. Algerian and Moroccan officials held out little hope today for a quick settlement of their frontier conflict, the Associated Press reported. Emperor Haile Selassie, of Ethiopia, was in Algiers conferring with President Ahmed Ben Bella. The Emperor arrived late yesterday in his special plane from Rabat, where he had several meetings with King Hassan 11, of Morocco. But even before the Emperor had left the Moroccan capital, the Moroccan Foreign Minister (Ahmed Balafrej) told reporters that nothing was changed by the Emperor’s visit.

“The position of the two countries on the frontier question remains the same," he said. Emperor Haile Selassie was reportedly trying to persuade the Algerian leaders to agree to a summit meeting with King Hassan. Before leaving Rabat, the Emperor was said to have received a new assurance that King Hassan was prepared to meet Mr Ben Bella anywhere and at any time to discuss

a cease-fire, reported A.P. In Cairo, the authoritative newspaper “Al Ahram,” reported today that President Nasser had proposed a "detailed plan" for a peaceful solution to the conflict, according to Reuter. The newspaper gave no details, but said President Ben Bella had expressed his “approval” in a note to President Nasser. A Moroccan spokesman In Figuig, eastern Morocco, yesterday said troops were still massed on either side of the disputed Moroccan-Algerian frontier, but there had been no incidents during the night and the situation was calm.

However, the State-con-trolled Algerian newspapers reported violent new fighting in the Hassi Beida area. The reports said Moroccan troops, supported by tanks, heavy artillery and jets, "clashed violently with our forces holding a compact sector along the ridge of Hassi Beida and Tinjoub.” The Moroccan assaults were reported repulsed with heavy losses to the Moroccans.

Morocco yesterday declared that it had signed a “confidential" agreement with Algeria in July, 1961, on the border areas where fighting began earlier this month. The Moroccan Ambassador to the United Nations (Mr Ahmed Benhima) distributed texts of “a protocol of agreement” signed by King Hassan and Mr Ferhat Abbas, then President of the Provisional Algerian Government, in Rabat.

The document said Algeria reaffirmed that agreements which might be reached after French-Algerian negotiations which were going on at the time, “could not be binding upon Morocco as far as the territorial demarcation" was concerned. Later President Ben Khedda, and then the Algerian Government after independence, had confirmed the agreement, Mr Benhima said. The Moroccan Government had decided to reveal the “confidential" agreement because statements had been made denying its existence, the Ambassador said. The document said that the

Algerian and Moroccan Governments had decided to create a mixed commission which should meet as soon as possible to solve the border problem. Algeria had delayed the negotiations saying that it wanted to await the holding of new elections after independence, Mr Benhima said, and Morocco had shown good faith by accepting this appeal.