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Rabat – Like many Algerian government officials, Ould Abbes has reasserted Algeria’s unwillingness to take part in the negotiations over Western Sahara.
“Algeria, whose support for the Saharawi cause is unwavering and non-negotiable, again reaffirms that it has nothing to do with the direct negotiations that the Security Council called for the end of this year between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco,” said Djamel Ould Abbes, secretary-general of Algeria’s National Liberation Front (FLN).
Ould-Abbes’ statement was published by Algeria Press Service (APS) on August 15.
In April, the Algerian minister of foreign affairs and Algerian prime minister both reaffirmed Algeria’s position refusing to engage in the negotiations over Western Sahara, claiming that the solution lies between Morocco and Polisario, not Algeria.
Nevertheless, Ould Abbes explained that Algeria intends to have good neighborly relations with Morocco. “The position of Algeria is not intended in any way to undermine the friendly relations between the Algerian and Moroccan peoples.”
“Anyone who tries to ‘stir the fires of the Fitna (sedition)’ between the two neighboring countries is on the wrong track,” he added.
Ould Abbes also claimed that “the Algerian leadership supports the UN process led by the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general to Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, aimed at relaunching direct negotiations between the parties to the conflict.”
On August 8, Kohler presented the UN Security Council with a briefing on the situation in Western Sahara. He called on the parties in the conflict—Morocco and the Polisario Front—as well as neighboring states such as Algeria to resume negotiations.
The aim of negotiations is to find an agreed upon and mutually acceptable political solution to the Western Sahara conflict.
Morocco, however, believes that Algeria should engage in the negotiations and be part of a solution to the regional conflict.
Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, told Moroccan media that negotiations over the Western Sahara conflict without the participation of Algeria will be a “waste of time.”
