Algeria’s Sahara Stance Sparks Moroccan Rights Group Backlash

During the tête-à-tête between the two personalities, Ahmed Attaf, head of Algerian diplomacy, renewed his country’s call for direct and unconditional talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front for a lasting resolution in the Sahara. A call criticized by the Moroccan League for Citizenship and Human Rights. For it, Algeria’s claim of neutrality is totally incompatible with the imposition of conditions that hinder the settlement process and contradict the resolutions of the Security Council. The Algerian orientation towards a unilateral approach constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of the United Nations Charter, which obliges Member States to respect good faith and not to interfere in the internal affairs of countries, denounced the human rights organization in a statement.

It stressed that the duplicity of the discourse adopted by Algeria, by supporting one party to the detriment of the other, exacerbates tensions and blocks the efforts of the United Nations to find a negotiated political solution. Faced with this approach, the Association has reaffirmed that the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco in 2007 remains the only realistic and credible solution. It also recalled the broad international support it has received from major and influential powers such as the United States, Spain, Germany and France, who have considered it a serious and logical framework for ending the artificial conflict and establishing stability in the region. The organization also mentioned the glaring contradiction between the reality of development in the southern provinces of the Kingdom and the situation in the Tindouf camps.

In this regard, it highlighted the qualitative advances made in Moroccan Sahara in terms of economic and social rights and infrastructure, while denouncing in return the "serious violations" and "tragic conditions" experienced by the detainees in Tindouf, which constitute a manifest violation of international human rights conventions. The association also says it is satisfied with the presentation of a bill in the US Congress in June 2025 aimed at classifying the Polisario Front as a "foreign terrorist organization", based on its documented links with smuggling networks and extremist armed groups active in the Sahel region.

The organization calls on the Moroccan government and Parliament to show courage and not to be content with waiting for the adoption of the American project, but to act proactively and undertake concrete initiatives to push for the adoption of this classification at the international level, in order to protect human rights and preserve the security and stability of the region.