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Rabat – The US has overtly called on Algeria to fully commit to the UN-led political process and support the efforts being made by Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to find a lasting solution to the dispute over Western Sahara.
This response to Algeria’s ongoing attempts to shirk its responsibility in the Sahara dispute came during a phone call between Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Algeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Attaf.
According to a statement from the State Department, the US official congratulated Algeria on its election to the UN Security Council, reiterating the need to partner on the “full range of challenges” facing the UN-led process in Western Sahara.
This includes the need to display “full support for UN Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General Staffan de Mistura as he intensifies efforts to achieve an enduring and dignified political solution for Western Sahara,” the statement added.
The US’ call comes amid Algeria’s defiance of UN resolutions, with the North African country continuing to refuse to shoulder its responsibility in the Western Sahara dispute.
Algeria hosts the separatist group of the Polisario Front in the Tindouf camps, providing them with logistical and financial support like military training, finances, and unconditional support for their independence claims in Morocco’s southern provinces in the Western Sahara region.
Yet the Algerian regime has long refused to take part in the potential UN-moderated roundtables, an initiative of the UN Special Envoy seeking to relaunch talks and dialogue between the main parties to the Sahara dispute – Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, and Polisario.
Claiming that it is merely an observer rather than a main party to the dispute, Algeria has been declining UN special envoy’s invitation for the roundtables, claiming that it supports “prospects of consolidating the efforts of the UN for a resumption of direct negotiations between the two parties to the conflict.”
Read also: Hilale: Resolution 2654 Confirms Algeria’s Status as Major Party in Sahara Dispute
For decades, however, Morocco has been pointing to Algeria’s “historical responsibility” in the dispute, stressing that there would be no Polisario Front without the logistical, financial, military, and administrative backing of the Algerian regime.
Algeria, meanwhile continues to reject its responsibility in the dispute – defying the international community’s recommendations – including the latest resolution that openly urged Algeria to strongly engage in the political process was adopted last year in October.
Paragraph 3 of Resolution 2654 reaffirmed that the Security Council “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.”
For Morocco, this means the resolution confirmed Algeria’s status as a main party in the Sahara dispute.
Omar Hilale, Morocco’s ambassador to the UN, said last year that the Security Council’s resolution sealed “once again” Algeria’s status as a main stakeholder in the regional dispute.
By calling on Algiers to cooperate and engage in the UN political process of the round tables in a spirit of compromise and realism, Hilale argued, the UN left room for “ambiguity” regarding Algeria’s role in the decades-long dispute.
