With the "Statute for the Europeans" threatening to reach an impasse, Joxe switched to the question of the Sahara. But here the lines of disagreement were even more sharply etched. In simplest terms, the French view was that the Algerians had no more right to the vast desert under-belly than the Indians had to Texas. Pedantically, Joxe explained how the frontiers of the Sahara were purely artificial, created arbitrarily by French cartographers. Historically, geographically and racially it had never had any connection with Algeria, and what was understood by Algeria was that narrow strip bounded by the Atlas mountains and the Mediterranean; traditionally the Algerians, claimed Joxe, had always been drawn northwards rather than southwards. Meanwhile, France had consistently accorded the Sahara special status. It required only the minimum of cynicism to comment that, ten years previously, the fate of all those millions of hectares of barren and would not have occupied the conference table for five minutes, but now what was at stake was the untold wealth of the oil and gas beneath the surface. Vast sums of French capital had already been poured into its exploitation; the future prosperity of the Gaullist economy was predicated upon it. Altruistically, the French delegates at Evian expounded the intention of developing the Sahara resources for the benefit of all former French colonies adjacent. De Gaulle was adamant. "The petroleum, that's France and uniquely France," he told Joxe, adding: "The Algerian Sahara is a juridical and nationalist fiction devoid of any historical foundation." Equally immovable, the Algerian delegates declared: "The Sahara is an integral part of Algeria: there can be no discussion about the integrity of Algerian territory." It was the formula unaltered since the Soummam Conference of 1956.

XREF: Connects to the broader decolonization conflicts over resource-rich territories, echoing similar positions elsewhere in postcolonial history.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1437