Algeria expresses its readiness to support mediation between Morocco and the Polisario to find a solution to the Sahara conflict
Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said Tuesday that his country won’t skimp on its support for any mediation initiative between the Polisario Front and Morocco, provided it falls within a “UN framework” aimed at finding a solution to the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara.
For fifty years, Algeria has adopted a position in support of the Polisario, which demands the right of self-determination for the Sahrawi population, against Morocco.
Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Rabat in 2021 over the dispute over Western Sahara, and also after Morocco normalized its relations with Israel.
The United Nations classifies Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony until 1975 rich in phosphates and fish, as a “non-self-governing” territory, and the last region in Africa whose status has not been resolved after decolonization.
Attaf told a press conference that Algeria won’t skimp on its support for any initiative to mediate between the parties to the conflict, provided that this initiative falls within the framework of the United Nations.
He pointed out that any mediation must lead to the constants of a just, lasting and final solution to the Western Sahara issue in accordance with UN resolutions.
On October 31, the United Nations adopted a resolution that considered autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty to be the most realistic solution to the conflict.
It’s a proposal that Rabat has been advocating since 2007 and is rejected by the Polisario.
Morocco welcomed the decision as a historic shift, which Attaf rejected, who said that the decision provided major gains for the Polisario that enabled it to defend its position from a position of solid power rooted in international legitimacy, in addition to renewing the mandate of (UN Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara) MINURSO for a year.
The mission entrusted with organizing the referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara, as its name expressly indicates.
Another gain, he said, is the removal of the exclusivity of the Moroccan autonomy proposal, which I want to enshrined as the only and only basis for negotiations.
