UN General Assembly
1979

167. As an expression of Morocco's desire to overcome this fabricated problem, His Majesty King Hassan II, the King of Morocco, in a letter addressed to the current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity [OAU] on 28 August 1979, proposed the holding of a summit conference of Heads of State and Government of the countries bordering the Sahara, with a view to examining the measures to be taken for the achievement of co-ordinated and joint economic development in keeping with the aspirations of its peoples and for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the greater Saharan region, since the Sahara—as we have already indicated—is not confined to what used to be known as the Western Sahara, which was occupied by Spain, but extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.