Rabat – The Algerian government continues to shirk its responsibility in the Western Sahara conflict, with the Algerian Foreign Affairs Ministry describing the latest UN resolution on the conflict as irresponsible, partial, and unbalanced.
The Algerian ministry published today its first reaction to the UN Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 2602 which extended the mandate of peacekeeping operation MINURSO to one year.
The majority of the UN Security Council members voted for the resolution, with only Russia and Tunisia abstaining from the vote.
In its statement, the Algerian ministry rejected the UN resolution, saying that the text of the resolution did not reflect the reality of the conflict and lacked the “lucidity” required to end it.
The statement explained, “Algeria expresses its deep regret as to the fundamentally unbalanced approach enshrined in this text, which sorely lacks responsibility and lucidity due to the unfortunate forcing of some of the influential members of the said Council.”
The Algerian regime added that it will not support the “partial resolution,” and called on Staffan de Mistura, the new UN envoy in Western Sahara, to “strictly inscribe” his mandate in the implementation of Resolution 690 (1991) on the settlement plan accepted by the “two parties to the conflict.”
The statement clearly shows Algeria’s reluctance to shoulder its responsibility in the conflict and play a key role in the UN-led process to find a political solution. Yet again presenting itself as a third party with no particular stakes in the Sahara dispute, Algiers claimed that a solution to the conflict should be between Morocco and the separatist Polisario Front only.
The statement is a direct response to the new resolution’s mentioning of Algeria as one of the main parties to the conflict. The resolution notably concluded that Algeria should be present in potential roundtable discussions to find a political solution to the conflict over Western Sahara.
While Algeria has tirelessly lobbied for a self-determination referendum, the resolution repeatedly encouraged the parties to the conflict — Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and Polisario — to come to the negotiating table in good faith to resume consultations for a pragmatic and compromise-based political solution to the conflict.
It also emphasized that talks between the parties to the conflict should take the format of roundtable discussions launched by the former UNSG envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler.
Kohler convened the conflicting parties for two roundtable negotiations held in Geneva in 2018 and 2019. Due to his resignation in May 2019, the UN-led political process witnessed a stagnation for over two years.
Defying the UN, Algeria’s officials have said that they will not participate in any roundtables, describing the former talks as “obsolete.”
But for the Security Council, the roundtables held in 2018 and 2019 created a “new momentum” whose legacy should be upheld in hopes of identifying the few elements of convergence between the conflicting parties.
Taking issue with the language used in both the UN Secretary General’s annual report and the Security Council’s resolution, Algeria continues to claim that the international community has not been doing enough to compel “the two parties to engage in direct and frank talks, without any preconditions.”
The Algerian ministry’s statement further claimed that talks between the parties to the conflict should be in accordance with the decision of the Peace and Security Council of the AU adopted in March 2021.
“Any step that ignores the right to self-determination and independence of the Saharawi people will be counterproductive, unjust, dangerous, and will only add further tension and instability in the region,” it said.
This shows the Algerian regime’s continuous attempts to make the African Union interfere in the UN-led political process, in blatant defiance of the organization’s pledge to support the UN-led process and refrain from publishing for an alternative agenda.
In addition, Algeria’s specific mention of the AU’s March 2021 resolution, when the AU Peace and Security Council ignored the current African consensus on Western Sahara, further points to the country’s history of cherry-picking in a sea of recent developments only a handful of instances that support its Western Sahara agenda.
But with the AU having mostly taken a pro-Rabat turn on the Sahara question, it is doubtful whether Algeria’s relentless diplomatic activism on behalf of the Polisario Front will decisively change the conversation around the Sahara conflict.
