Algeria turns its back on the Polisario

Khadija Mohsen-Finan believes that the UN Security Council resolution "changes a lot of things, because it is what the Moroccans were waiting for, that is to say the recognition by the international community of what Hassan II called their title of ownership over the Sahara". The political scientist explains in an interview with RFI that "at a time when several states, such as the United States, France, and the United Kingdom, are preparing to invest in this territory, it was absolutely necessary to overcome, if you will, the fact that we were in a colonial scheme, since this territory was to be decolonized. So, it was necessary to get out of this scheme of colonizers and colonized. And this is what was done by the vote last Friday at the UN Security Council".

The Maghreb specialist also commented on the abstention of the Russians and the Chinese during the vote on this resolution. "Let’s say that the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, went to Moscow and the Moroccans were assured that the Russians could certainly not hold it against them. And very probably, the latest version of the resolution text was made so that the Russians and the Chinese could indeed abstain and not vote against, by adding the term "self-determination". This is very precious for the Russians, it is very precious for the Chinese," she said on Christophe Boisbouvier’s microphone, recalling that "for a few years now, the Russians have been maintaining very good relations with Morocco. We are no longer at all in the Cold War scheme."

With this unprecedented stance of Moscow and Beijing, "we can expect the Russians and the Chinese to be attentive to the type of autonomy that will be implemented by Morocco in this region," analyzes Khadija Mohsen-Finan, who, moreover, finds "surprising" the refusal of Algeria, a member of the Security Council this year, to participate in the vote on the resolution. "Very probably because Algeria wants to return to the regional and international scene, that it is counting a lot on an economic and strategic partnership with Washington, with the United States, and that finally, it may have accepted to be in what some might call realpolitik. But it is nevertheless a way of turning its back on the Polisario Front, on the self-determination that it has supported for 50 years," she argues.

And to insist: "If there is an honorable way out through this resolution text, no one knows what will become of the Sahrawis of Tindouf, what will become of the Sahrawi cause. No one is talking about it and I don’t think at all that they will continue to be sponsored and protected by Algiers. And that is their concern, moreover. And in the latest statements of the Polisario Front, we can glimpse a despair nonetheless. [...] The Polisario Front alone cannot confront Morocco. And in any case, it had to wait for the authorization of Algiers to act militarily." For the Maghreb specialist, the ball is now in Morocco’s court, which must specify what its autonomy plan entails. "Today, real autonomy, if we wanted to apply it to Morocco, the Moroccan political scheme would not allow it. There needs to be a scheme of decentralization and democratization of this country for autonomy to be established..." concludes the political scientist.