Rabat – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recalled King Mohammed VI’s latest dialogue offer to Algeria, calling on its regime to engage in a frank and direct dialogue to end the long-running political stalemate between the two countries.
The annual report from Guterres recalled that King Mohammed VI’s Throne Day speech in July assured Algerians that “Morocco and the Moroccans will always be on their side.”
The King’s speech also emphasized the country’s commitment to finding a way out of the current situation and to promoting closer ties.
The UN report recalled King Mohammed VI’s dialogue offer, urging the Algerian presidency to work with Morocco in order to restore normal relations.
The July 2022 speech was not the first royal dialogue initiative that the Algerian regime turned a deaf ear to.
Weeks prior to Algeria’s decision to sever diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021, the King spoke about the need to end the political stalemate with Algiers.
In his 2021 Throne Day speech, the monarch echoed the same sentiment, stressing Morocco’s readiness to sincerely work with Algeria “without conditions” to restore bilateral ties.
“I am not satisfied with the current state of our relations for it does not serve our people’s interests, nor is it acceptable to a great many countries,” he said in his previous speech. The King made a similar dialogue appeal in 2018 through his Green March speech.
In addition to severing relations with Morocco, Algeria also decided to close its airspace to the North African country last year.
While Algeria attributed its decision to Morocco’s “hostilities,” political observers said the decision was due to the growing support for the Moroccan autonomy initiative for Western Sahara.
Algeria, which finances, arms, and hosts the Polisario Front, recalled its ambassador from Spain in March 2022 after the European country endorsed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible solution to end the dispute over Western Sahara.
It also decided to halt a 20-year-long friendship treaty with Spain following the Autonomy Plan endorsement.
Algeria also increased lobbying attempts against the US recognition of Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Refusing to shoulder responsibility in the territorial dispute, the Algerian regime also ignored UN support for the royal dialogue initiative.
In 2018, the UN said that it has always been “very supportive of increased dialogue between Algeria and Morocco whose relationship is very important to the dialogue.”
In his 2022 report on Western Sahara, the UN chief renewed his concerns about the lingering tensions, encouraging both countries to re-establish dialogue towards the mending of their reactions.
