Diplomatic Tide Turns Against Algeria in Sahara Dispute

Statements by Steve Witkoff, envoy of US President Donald Trump to the Middle East, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, leaks of the draft UN resolution, and the recent position of Belgium on the Sahara... Algeria, supporter of the Polisario Front, is losing more and more ground on the international diplomatic scene. The recent statements of the independence movement do not help Algiers either. In a statement to an international press agency, Mohamed Yeslem Beissat, head of the "diplomacy" of the independence movement, announced that the Polisario Front is ready to accept the autonomy plan proposed in 2007 by Morocco for Western Sahara, but only if the Sahrawi population validates it by referendum. An idea no doubt inspired by Algeria.

He explained that the movement’s proposal "includes the three options provided for by international law: independence, integration and the free association pact, which could resemble what Morocco proposes". Except that since 1974, Rabat has displayed "its categorical opposition" to seeing a puppet state "in the southern part of the kingdom". After the US recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara under the Trump administration in December 2020, the Moroccan autonomy plan has received an avalanche of support. The United States, France and the United Kingdom, who are among the five members of the Security Council, support the Moroccan plan. Russia is "in a constructive position" while China remains attached "to previous resolutions", Beissat said.

Faced with these October events, Algeria is trying to save face. On Tuesday, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, spoke by telephone with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. On Thursday, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune personally welcomed Alexei Repik, president of the Russian business organization Business Russia, to Algiers.