Meknes – Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali has expressed his movement’s unwillingness to take part in the UN-led political process on Western Sahara, promising that the separatist front would not commit to any peacemaking efforts that do not guarantee “Sahrawi self-termination.”
Algerian state media reported that Ghali is putting a condition on the resumption of negotiations. Polisario “is ready to resume negotiations,” but “under the condition of implementing international guarantees that enable the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.”
The Polisario front’s conditions appear aimed at undermining the UN’s calls on all parties involved in the dispute to show commitment to the UN-led political process.
With this decision, the Polisario joins Algeria in its rejection of the roundtable process that aims to help the parties reach a compromise-based mutually acceptable political resolution to the conflict.
In October, Algeria took the same step, “expressing frustration” with UN-led negotiations. Special envoy in charge of the Western Sahara and Maghreb countries Amar Belani said that Algeria has “publicly rejected” the roundtable format. The diplomat said the process has “become unproductive.”
On October 29, the UN adopted resolution 2602, extending the mandate of MINURSO, the peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara, until October 2022.
Resolution 2602 encouraged “consultations between the Personal Envoy and Morocco, the Frente POLISARIO, Algeria, and Mauritania.” The UN called on these parties to build up a talk to resume “the progress achieved.”
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However, Algeria has long persisted in its position as merely an observer to the conflict, despite its financial and military backing of the militia which resides on Algerian territory. The Algerian military regime has always said that only Morocco and the Polisario Front can achieve a solution to the conflict.
The UN in recent years has opposed this view, listing Algeria as one of the conflict’s obviously involved parties. Amid general momentum for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan and calls for dialogue, Algerian diplomats appear to now resort only to undermining and delaying the UN peace process.
Meanwhile, Morocco has been keen to call on Algeria on several occasions to assume its “historic responsibility” in sustaining the conflict in Western Sahara through its financial, logistical, and military backing of the separatist Polisario Front.
With regional hegemony at stake, the Sahara conflict has fueled the political divergences between Algiers and Rabat, locking the two Maghrebi nations in a costly arms race while blocking crucial bilateral trade and cooperation.
