Ambassador Gabriel on Mauritania-Polisario relationship

1) According to member of Polisario’s National Secretariat, the visit to the Canary Islands by a small Polisario delegation [including Speaker of the Saharawi National Council Khatri Addouh and Polisario’s representative in Spain Bouchraya Bayoun] during the second week of July had nothing to do with the fisheries agreement between Morocco and European Union [against which Polisario has been campaigning vigorously]. The main object of the visit, the National Secretariat member said, was to sign a number of agreements providing for aid for Saharawi refugees [in the Tindouf camps] on the one hand and Canary Island regional government grants for Saharawi students studying at Spanish universities.