Western Sahara Draft Resolution Urges Algeria to Engage in UN Process

Rabat – The UN Security Council is set to vote on a draft resolution that shatters the Algeria regime’s lingering hope of denying its responsibility in the Western Sahara dispute.

The draft resolution, an exclusive copy of which was obtained by Morocco World News, shows that the Security Council’s members are set to put further pressure on Algeria’s regime to shoulder its responsibility in the dispute as a main party.

Algeria, which hosts, finances, arms, and backs the Polisario Front, claims itself to be merely an observer in the dispute, suggesting that a solution should be based purely on negotiations between Morocco and the separatist group. These claims have repeatedly delayed and undermined the path towards peace and stability in the region.

Despite the Algerian regime’s strategy to downplay its fundamental role in the dispute, paragraph 3 of the UN Security Council resolution stressed the importance of the involvement of “all parties” in the dispute in the UN-led political process.

‘All parties’

The text’s draft renewed full support for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his personal envoy to “facilitate the negotiations process” to achieve a solution. Furthermore, it “strongly encourages Morocco, the Frente POLISARIO, Algeria, and Mauritania to engage with the Personal Envoy through the duration of this process, in a spirit of realism and compromise to ensure a successful outcome.”

Moroccan analyst, MWN co-founder and foreign policy expert Samir Bennis emphasized that the resolution “reaffirms once more the need for all the parties, including Algeria, to be guided by a spirit of compromise and realism to achieve a long-lasting and mutually acceptable political solution to the dispute.”

Bennis further noted that this resolution echoed the language in the UNSG’s latest report on the situation in Western Sahara. The report specifically reiterated that resolutions “adopted since 2018 constitute the political framework within which the parties should strive to achieve a “realistic, practicable, enduring, and mutually acceptable solution based on compromise.”

Dialogue for peace

Morocco’s government has repeatedly emphasized its determination to engage in the UN-led political process as part of the roundtable talks initiated by former UNSG envoy Horst Kohler, whose resignation was marked by political deadlock since May 2019.

The key novelty in the new resolution, which the Security Council members will vote on later this month, emphasizes the importance of “all parties” engaged in the process to build on the progress achieved by the former UNSG envoy Kohler.
Kohler’s appointment in 2017 revived talks and dialogue as part of the political process. This has been reflected in the language used in Resolution 2414 and Resolution 2440 of 2018. Both resolutions stressed the importance of the involvement of all parties in the UN process on the basis of compromise and realism to achieve a mutually agreed upon political solution.

Kohler convened the parties to the dispute in roundtable talks in Geneva in 2018 as part of the political process, seeking to reach a mutually acceptable political solution to end the dispute.

Kohler’s appointment also marked the start of specific references to Algeria in Security Council texts, signaling a new shift in the UN approach and views on the Algerian responsibility in the dispute.

New envoy, same focus

In October 2021, the UNSG appointed a new envoy, Staffan de Mistura, whose main mission is to build on Kolher’s roundtable process. However, Algeria’s regime has defied UN recommendations and resolutions, continuing to deny its clear responsibility in the dispute.

It is true that the first part of the third paragraph in the new draft resolution contains similar language to that adopted in 2021’s Resolution 2602. It differs however in the second part of the new paragraph, which has new language emphasizing it is “strongly” encouraging all parties, instead of “welcoming” the involvement of the parties.

The new UN resolution will see the mandate of the UN peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara renewed until October 31, 2023.

The majority of the paragraphs in the new resolution emphasize the need for the engagement of all parties to cooperate and demonstrate the political will to work in an atmosphere “propitious for dialogue” to advance negotiations.

The beginning of new frustration

If adopted, it will come as no surprise to see Algeria’s regime expressing its frustration with the new resolution.

In 2021, Algeria’s regime published a communique, claiming that the text did not reflect the reality of the conflict and lacked the “lucidity” required to end it.

“Algeria expresses its deep regret to the fundamentally unbalanced approach enshrined in this text, which sorely lacks responsibility and lucidity,” the Algerian regime said in its 2021 press release.

The frustration comes within the context of repeated diplomatic setbacks for Algiers’ pro-Polisario activism — particularly evidenced in the growing number of countries that have expressed support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan.

The US, the penholder of the Security Council resolution, recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in December 2020, a decision that built momentum and opened doors for more support for Morocco’s autonomy proposal from a series of other countries – including, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Belgium.