Algerian Official Expelled from UN Meeting Following Anti-Moroccan Outburst

An Algerian representative was expelled from the Fourth Committee meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday after launching an offensive attack against Morocco.

During the meeting, Nouria Hafsi, President of the National Union of Algerian Women, shared hostile remarks against Morocco, calling the North African kingdom a “colonial” monarchy.

Majda Moutchou, Morocco’s representative to the UN, took decisive action and asked UN police to intervene and remove the Algerian official.

Moutchou condemned the hate speech, defended Morocco’s sovereignty, and denounced the hostile rhetoric aimed at undermining the kingdom’s territorial integrity.

In her response to the Algerian representative’s provocative comments, the Moroccan diplomat urged for the end of hate speech and anti-Moroccan rhetoric and called for UN security services to intervene to expel the Algerian official from the meeting.

This is not the first time that an Algerian official has used an international platform to hurl hostile, hateful remarks at Morocco and Moroccans.

Just last month, Algeria’s top diplomat, Ahmed Attaf, made similarly spiteful, Morocco-bashing comments at the UN General Assembly.

In his hostile speech, Attaf described the southern Moroccan region of Western Sahara as an “occupied territory,” and urged the UN to expedite what he called the “Decolonization of the region.:”

In response, Morocco’s permanent representative to the UN Omar Hilale firmly rejected Algeria’s allegations, reiterating the need for the UN to get the Algerian government involved in the UN-led political process instead of Morocco-bashing campaigns.

“It is Algeria that created the Polisario, it is Algeria that finances the Polisario, it is Algeria that pays the Polisario, and it is with Algerian passports that Polisario separatists travel around the world,” Hilale said.

Despite its well-documented support for the Polisario Front, the separatist group claiming independence in the southern Moroccan region of Western Sahara, Algeria’s regime has long shirked its responsibility in the territorial dispute.

Later this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will present to the Security Council his report on the situation in Western Sahara. The report will be followed by a vote in the Council to renew the mandate of MINURSO, the UN peacekeeping mission in the disputed region.