Algeria-Morocco Tensions Escalate Over Western Sahara Dispute

The remarks of Professor Mohammed Benhamou, president of the Moroccan Center for Strategic Studies, did not please the Algerian diplomat Merzak Bedjaoui. In a statement to the Cameroonian newspaper La Nouvelle Expression, the Algerian ambassador to Yaoundé recalled the basic principles of Algerian foreign policy. These include the defense of the Palestinian cause and the decolonization of occupied territories, such as those of Western Sahara.

Addressing the Sahara issue, he recalled the resolutions and decisions of various international and regional organizations, in particular the inscription of the territory of Western Sahara by the UN General Assembly since 1963 on the list of non-self-governing territories. The Algerian diplomat also recalled that in 2002, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Hans Corell, had concluded that "Morocco is not the administering power of the Sahrawi territory".

On the basis of this conclusion, "the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) had handed down judgments on agricultural products, fisheries and air transport, respectively in December 2015 and November 2018," he continued, adding that "under the UN Charter, Western Sahara was a territory distinct and separate from that of the Kingdom of Morocco".

According to the Algerian diplomat, Morocco continues to "trample on these commitments by creating a fragile situation of neither war nor peace". He did not fail to recall that the recognition by the former US President, Donald Trump, of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara had as a counterpart the normalization of relations between the Moroccan regime and the Zionist entity, ally of the United States.

Merzak Bedjaoui also called on the UN to urgently appoint a "special envoy to the Sahara to apply the principle of self-determination, so that the Sahrawi people can finally decide their future in complete freedom". According to him, this approach will not only lead to regional stability but will also "allow the countries of North Africa to build their regional organization, the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic".